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the governing body and commercialisation
The Governing Body and Commercialisation
Some of the principal responsibilities of governing bodies, as set out in the CUC Guide relate to financial solvency, the safeguarding of assets, ensuring the adequacy of risk and control mechanisms and financial strategy in general. If the institution expects to make a significant effort to generate “third stream” or commercial income it should have a commercialisation strategy, which should be approved by the governing body
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) sets out three broad elements of the financial role:
- Securing stewardship – control mechanisms and regulation;
- Supporting performance – being responsive to stakeholders and effective and efficient; and
- Enabling transformation – being pro-active in managing change and risk, looking to the future and outcome focused.
Some of the main challenges for governors in relation to trading, commercial and enterprise activities are:
- Ensuring that governance arrangements and structures are robust enough to ensure effective monitoring and control, and that regular performance data is provided;
- Maintaining a proper separation between governance and management, while finding the most effective way of using governor expertise;
- Ensuring that commercial activities comply with funding council guidance and regulations on investment;
- Ensuring that there is a link between the commercialisation strategy and the core academic and financial strategies;
- Dealing effectively with any potential conflicts of interest;
- Avoiding over-reliance on commercial sources of revenue; and
- Ensuring that the institution has the necessary skills in place to support initiatives in this area
The development of new sources of third stream or commercial income may carry greater risks than the more conventional reliance on funding for teaching and research.
See Chapter 6 of Getting to Grips with Research and Knowledge Transfer for more on the responsibilities of the governing body for research and knowledge transfer.
Powerpoint presentations:
Commercialisation and Third Stream Activities: Issues for Governing Bodies.
Developing Alternative Income Streams
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