Britain's top universities have asked the government for £1 billion ($1.4 billion) to finance university spin-off companies, a measure that could help bolster the faltering UK economy and prop up the biotech industry, according to__ linkurl:Education Guardian.;http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/10/research-funding
__The call was spearheaded by Imperial College London with backing from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, as well as the linkurl:National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts;http://www.nesta.org.uk/ (NESTA), a non-governmental body that invests in early-stage companies. NESTA also petitioned the government in linkurl:December;http://www.nesta.org.uk/assets/Uploads/pdf/briefing_note/stimulating_venture_capital_NESTA.pdf for a similar £1 billion fund to stimulate venture capital investment in early-stage science and technology firms. The government is seriously considering the proposal, said Matthew Barker, a spokesperson for the linkurl:Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills;http://www.dius.gov.uk (DIUS). "It's an option that the government is looking at" in combination with a number of other proposals to help business in the current economic climate, he...
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