A hot topic of conversation in university innovation is how we can demonstrate impact. Questions we ask ourselves include: how many lives are we positively affecting with our activities? How are we impacting those lives? What are the tangible outcomes of our research, and how can we improve the adoption – and yes, the impact – of those outcomes?

For Oxford, one particular journey we’ve collectively been on for the past 18 months has made demonstrating impact a relatively straightforward process: creation and delivery of the COVID-19 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

To the casual observer, delivery of the vaccine within a year may have seemed easy. But from the perspective of OUI, we have seen a truly Herculean effort across the Oxford innovation ecosystem to design, test and manufacture the vaccine, and our broader response to COVID-19.

The vaccine itself is a story of impact two decades in the making, with Oxford research led by Professors Adrian Hill and Sarah Gilbert into adenoviruses as a platform for vaccines stretching back to the turn of the millennium. Since 2016 this research has had a symbiotic relationship with our innovation activities, with our spinout community continuing to develop, support and invest in this research.

Originally conceived as a potential candidate for a universal flu vaccine, the ChAdOx-1 platform would be re-engineered at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis into the AZD1222 vaccine, currently making its way into arms around the world.

Bringing together an organisation

“A crucial aspect of the Oxford AstraZeneca deal was coming to an agreement on costs which saw the vaccine priced at $3 a shot, with AstraZeneca agreeing to produce it at cost throughout the length of the pandemic, compared with much higher prices per shot for Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines,” said Angela Calvert, Deputy Head of Life Sciences at OUI. “This is predominantly down to the University’s firm stance that this needs to be a shot for the whole world, not just developed nations.”

Bringing together an organisation as decentralised as Oxford University to work collaboratively on the rapid and effective delivery of AZD1222 to a carefully selected licensing partner was no small task. Researchers in the Jenner Institute have been working around the clock for over a year. Other staff from the Vice Chancellor down have been directly involved in making the deal happen. Our news office has barely had an hour go by without a new enquiry about this, one of the world’s biggest stories over the past year. OUI itself has played its part in supporting the deal and management of intellectual property (IP) related to the vaccine. And, of course, thousands of others around the world were involved in the testing, manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine itself.

And yet, the vaccine is only one part of our COVID-19 story.

Another major achievement for Oxford has been the introduction of QCovid, a risk calculator rolled out across the UK at the start of 2021. Developed by Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox, QCovid has proven an essential tool for GPs in rapidly identifying patients most at risk from severe complications from COVID-19, allowing them to provide guidance on shielding.

“The QCovid calculator was an essential tool in saving lives during the third lockdown,” said Fred Kemp, Deputy Head of Life Sciences at Oxford University Innovation. “With the pandemic in full swing during the winter months, it was essential that GPs knew who among their patients needed to ensure they weren’t in COVID’s path. Without QCovid, the resulting toll of that wave could have been far more severe.”

Oxford and its companies have also got involved in mass testing. At the beginning of the pandemic, Oxford Nanopore shifted its focus onto rapid testing for COVID-19. This initial work has led to Nanopore broadening its application of technology in this space to be able to rapidly test for and identify pathogens, both new and existing, allowing for new variants and threats from COVID-19 to be detected at pace.

Oxsed, a social venture

Alongside Nanopore’s efforts, OUI assisted the formation of Oxsed, a rapid testing social venture. The company became our fastest exit in history, going from spinout over the summer of 2020, to being acquired by Hong Kong-based life sciences firm Prenetics, in October. Its technology, RaViD Direct, produces accurate results in 30 minutes for £20 per testing kit, and is already being deployed in Heathrow and Hong Kong airports.

“The speed at which Oxsed was acquired demonstrated just how in demand this technology was over 2020,” said Jane Jin, Senior Licensing and Ventures Manager at Oxford University Innovation. “On the back of the deal, Prenetics has entered into a collaboration agreement with the University on rapid, molecular testing for infectious diseases and has set up a new Innovation Centre for Advanced Molecular Diagnostics at the Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research.”

Another social venture created to respond to the crisis was OxVent. Formed to manufacture low-cost “no-frills” ventilators to meet the NHS’ demand at the start of the crisis in the UK, the technology had a royal intervention, with prototypes loaded onto Her Majesty’s personal helicopter then flown in for evaluation by the UK government. The NHS was ultimately able to meet demand for ventilators in the UK, however OxVent is now aiming to make their technology available to low-income countries where the pandemic continues to rage.

These technologies and more have demonstrated how much impact technology from Oxford can have, particularly in a time of crisis. With that said, we are all looking forward to the day when we can talk about impact from areas of university research beyond COVID-19.