The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) holds a wealth of Intellectual Property (IP) generated from the know-how of over 2,000 engineers and scientists which is crucial to the design, build and operation of the UK National Laboratories.
This IP exists in the form of patents, industrial designs and copyright in our papers, processes and software, developed through research done at our world leading, large-scale experimental facilities based across three sites in UK:
- ISIS is a pulsed neutron and muon source
- Central Laser facility (CLF) houses lasers that range from advanced, compact tuneable lasers which can pinpoint individual particles to high power laser installations that recreate the conditions inside stars
- RAL Space is at the forefront of UK Space Research, carries out an exciting range of space research, technology development and has had significant involvement in over 200 space missions
- Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national Synchrotron Facility
- Scientific Computing Department (SCD) at Daresbury, which provides large scale High Performance Computing facilities and houses leading experts in the fields of computational chemistry, materials science, band theory, computational biology, data services, peta-scale storage, for example
- Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) at Daresbury has specialist knowledge and skills in the design and building of accelerators and is a much sought after group by the Academia and industry alike
- the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at Edinburgh, which is the national centre for astronomical technology, where we design and build instruments for many of the world’s major telescopes.
Find out more about the STFC Technology Publisher.
STFC has a duty to exploit its IP for the economic benefit of the UK, either by enabling scientists to carry out experiments at our facilities, commercial licensing, or both. The Technology Publisher STFC’s patented technologies that are available for commercial licensing.
STFC Innovations Ltd (SIL), a wholly owned STFC subsidiary, is responsible for the management and commercialisation of the IP in line with the organisation’s vision to maximise impact for the UK.
In order to manage the intellectual property created, STFC has an IP policy. The STFC IP Policy is designed to be fair and to meet our obligations. The policy clarifies who will own Intellectual property through any interactions with STFC.
Contacts
You can ask us about Intellectual Property.
Elizabeth Bain
Email: elizabeth.bain@stfc.ac.uk
You can ask us about any of our technologies.
Liam Brennan
Email: liam.brennan@stfc.ac.uk
Last updated: 12 January 2022