FOURTH OXFORD–BERLIN SYMPOSIUM

Building partly on government-inspired strengthening of bi-lateral ties between Germany and the UK, the fourth symposium of the Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership took place on 30 September at Lady Margaret Hall (pictured, right).

The one-day conference, titled ‘Innovation: Pathways to Societal Impact’, brought together researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders to discuss translating ideas and academic research into solutions to global problems, with measurable societal impact.

In his preliminary remarks, Professor Alexander Betts, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement and Academic Director of the Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership, noted how the partnership, which is between the University of Oxford and Berlin University Alliance, was ‘partly a reaction to Brexit – to renew Anglo-German Cooperation’, but had since then matured into opportunities for exchange and research collaboration premised on a ‘values-based alignment’ that included respect for the truth, free speech and freedom, and the importance of academic research, all of them currently under threat.

Both partners possess ‘strong and ambitious innovation ecosystems’, and following Professor Betts’ remarks, his Berlin counterpart Professor Beate Kampmann, Einstein Professor of Global Health, Academic Director of the Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership, said that €17 million in additional funding had been raised as the result of several hundred collaborations during the partnership to date.

In an initial panel on ‘Innovation, Science and the Environment’, Dr Henry Marx, Berlin State Secretary for Higher Education and Research, asked the broad question what higher education means in times of great change, before outlining the necessary ambition to solve big problems. ‘Can we solve cancer?’ he asked.

Three other panels were convened across the day, on ‘Innovation, AI and the Arts’, ‘Innovating for Democracy: Building Resilience in a Changing World’, and ‘Innovation Eco-Systems’.

One of the broad themes was the need to be clear about what academics do best, and the fact that in order for them to be entrepreneurial in the received commercial sense of the word (in their own careers they and their students already are, it was acknowledged) they need to be incentivised in such a way as not to see commercialising their knowledge as a binary choice, to soften the perceived trade-offs. This matter was raised by Dr Doris Meder, Berlin Institute of Health, who runs a special programme in Germany to train medical post-docs in entrepreneurial values.

Professor Matthew Wood, a scientist who also chairs the management board for Oxford’s BioEscalator, spoke of the desirability of an ‘osmotic’, ‘fluid process’ between academia and industry, while being realistic about the need for many other skill sets around academics and their breakthrough knowledge, to make a successful spin-out company.

In a key note speech Oxford Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey (pictured, above) drew together many of the themes and noted first that the spin-out model remains the best ‘translational pathway’ for societal impact, but that in Oxford’s experience the turning point was raising £500 million to found Oxford Science Enterprises, a process that drew widely on the help and engagement of alumni.

‘That’s where it rocketed,’ she noted, adding that today the University seeds approximately 25-30 companies a year.

Oxford Science Enterprises is an independent investment company and venture builder founded in 2015, based on a unique partnership with the University.

Professor Tracey continued to mention the recent news of two Oxford spin-outs, Oxford Ionics and Organox, bought respectively in 2025 for US$1 billion and $1.5 billion. She said that the current priorities are to manage capital, talent and planning so as to facilitate the maturing of such companies for longer in the UK, not, of course, to inhibit the scaling and speed of impact made possible through the right sort of acquisition, but to recognise that ‘new pots of money’ could in certain circumstances ‘allow companies to stay [in the UK]’.

The sharing of such knowledge and thinking is of the essence of the Oxford–Berlin Partnership that rotates its annual symposium between Oxford and Berlin. The 2026 event will take place in Berlin.