Spinouts UK, a newly launched database of information on the commercialisation of intellectual property in higher education, tracks the progress of spin-offs across the sector.

An analysis of its data reveals that Imperial College London produced more spin-offs than any other UK university. It fostered 59 new companies from 2000 to 2010.

The other high performers were also high-ranking research-intensive universities.

Imperial was followed by the universities of Oxford (which started 55 companies), Edinburgh (49), Cambridge (44), Warwick (36), Strathclyde (35), Newcastle (28), Bristol (28), Sheffield (28) and Queen¡¯s University Belfast and Leeds (both 25).

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Between them, these 11 universities fostered 412 of the 820 spin-off companies formed during the decade.

Around 10 per cent of universities fostered more than 20 companies in the past decade.

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Scottish institutions produced more spin-off companies than those in any other region ¨C 172, of which 125 are currently active.

Across the sector, sales of spin-offs totalled ?3 billion.

Jonathan Harris, author of the study, said: ¡°Despite promising signs, the UK is not yet commercialising its tremendous intellectual property and innovation in the same way as the US. I hope this survey and our annual updates will help to change that.¡±

hannah.fearn@tsleducation.com