The University of Manchester formed Manchester Innovation Ltd. (MIL) in September 1999, largely in response to the UK government's challenge to increase the commercialization of intellectual property from the country's universities. MIL, which is 100% owned by the university, was born out of the merger of Victoria University of Manchester, responsible for technology transfer since the mid 1980s, and Manchester Biotechnology, the university's newly-built incubator for biotechnology start-ups.
Yet MIL's role goes beyond commercializing intellectual property generated by the university and managing the biotechnology incubator building on the...