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No one can be opposed to the idea of maximising the commercial benefits of academic research but there are, as the Lambert report says, "too many unsustainable spin-offs".

The dispersal of public cash into hopeless small ventures is a terrible waste. The penny packet approach of a few hundred thousand public pounds, a day's "entrepreneurship" training and three academics spun off is depressing.

The resources need to chase fewer, larger and better staffed businesses with a chance of making more of an impression. The aim should be to generate globally significant businesses, not to fill incubator units in science parks.

Jon Moulton
Managing partner, Alchemy