More about Business & Innovation Services

A new unit was created in 2010, bringing together the University business engagement and research commercialisation activities under one roof. The Technology Transfer Office and the Business and Regional Development Office (BaRD) amalgamated to form Durham's Business & Innovation Services (DBIS).

DBIS comprises four teams working closely together: The Business Engagement team concentrates on developing new business activity and partnerships with business and industry and includes the Consultancy and Analytical Services; the Research Commercialisation team is tasked with the commercialisation of research outputs and handles patents, licensing and spinout companies.

Working with faculties, departments, institutes and individual researchers, the unit supports all aspects of business engagement and research commercialisation. The Unit is part of the Registrars Division. Closely interacting with the Research Office, PVC Research and Dean of Knowledge Transfer, DBIS will enhance the capacity for income generation through providing opportunities to access sources of business focussed research funding, for example, the TSB, and industry led EU framework projects.  These activities will become Increasing important in demonstrating research impact, a key element in the new Research Excellence Framework, and as a consequence also contribute to the generation of core HEFCE research funding.