Collaboration and Contract Research

AstrobiologyOU actively seek to engage in commercial and social enterprise projects as a means of maximising the reach, significance and impact of our academic activities.

We advocate a multidisciplinary approach and have assembled a portfolio of world-leading facilities and a diverse team of experts with a track record of delivering a wide range of projects globally.

Potential engagement mechanisms include:

• Contract research
• Consultancy
• Joint applications to commercial funders (e.g. Innovate UK)
• Provision of commercial laboratory services
• Provision of bespoke training courses
• Contributions to national and international policy
• Licensing of our intellectual property
• Co-funding PhD students

We are keen to engage with SMEs, large enterprises or fledgling research groups that wish to develop their R&D portfolio. Working together we can develop collaborative projects and help you leverage suitable sources of funding to achieve your goals.

• We have long-standing experience and a high success rate in accessing internal and external funds for commercial and academic applications: including HEIF, SPRINT, UKRI, Innovate UK, KTP, and EU grants among others.
• We can advise you on the suitability of various funding calls and help you to develop the project’s budget and timeline, along with the science and business plans. We will establish a collaboration agreement with you to set out the details.
• We can negotiate the licensing of intellectual property (patents or trade know-how).

Although most of our PhD students are funded via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) research councils and The Open University, we would welcome the opportunity to work with organisations that could fully or partially support a PhD student through their studies.

This also offers an opportunity for bespoke research projects to be undertaken by a student linked to an issue of relevance and value to you and AstrobiologyOU. Schemes available to support this include:

• STFC Industrial CASE studentships
• NERC CASE studentships
• EPSRC Industrial CASE studentships
• MRC iCASE studentships
• BPSRC Industrial CASE studentships
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)
• OU Partnerships

We will draw up a collaboration agreement prior to starting work.

For projects requiring significant long-term investment, a strategic partnership can be considered.

If you would like further information please use email astrobiology@open.ac.uk