A new agreement between the Ministry of Defence’s Intellectual Property Rights group (DIPR), the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and Ploughshare Innovations has been signed which will extend Ploughshare’s pool of intellectual property to include AWE’s innovations.
AWE has been at the forefront of the UK nuclear deterrence programme for more than 60 years and with its world-class scientists develops a variety of cutting-edge technologies which can now be considered for commercialisation.
This new agreement gives Ploughshare, the technology transfer organisation for MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), access to these innovations which range from plasma physics and materials science, to computing and virtual reality. Selected technologies, through Ploughshare, can now be acquired by industry todevelop new capabilities and improve their competitive advantage.
This further increases Ploughshare’s portfolio of defence and security-related Intellectual Property (IP) which already includes the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Institute of Naval Medicine and the Front-Line Commands. The MOD anticipates that this will deliver an even greater impact from the investment it makes in Science & Technology and will contribute to the £150 billion of UK government intangible assets [1].
James Kirby, Ploughshare CEO, commented:
We are excited to have this agreement with AWE and already have several interesting inventions we are actively reviewing. By expanding the IP we have access to we shall increase our contribution to UK prosperity.
Samantha Page, AWE Head of Commercial Services, added:
“AWE has a team of remarkable people achieving extraordinary things, with some of the most advanced research and production facilities in the world. We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Ploughshare Innovations and DIPR on this exploitation agreement to maximise the benefit of AWE innovation for both civilian application and wider UK government.”
Ploughshare will incorporate the technologies into its proven processes which creates license deals and spin-out companies. Interested parties are invited to contact Ploughshare for more details.
Related information
If you have a specific media enquiry or would like to know more about Ploughshare and what we do please contact us.
- Technologies: IP Available for License
- AWE: Website
[1] Policy Paper: Getting smart about intellectual property and intangible assets