A qualifying entity is any entity other than an individual, including a company, a limited liability partnership, any other body corporate, a partnership, or an unincorporated association or trust.
In the higher education and research-intensive sectors, a qualifying entity could include, but is not limited to, a foreign or UK:
- university, which is registered as a charitable organisation
- private university
- trust
- university spin-out
- university subsidiary (for example a company that a university has incorporated and carries out specific activities that the university operates)
- research organisation
- private company or corporation doing contractual work with a higher education institution or research organisation.
Qualifying assets include land, tangible, moveable property, and ideas, information or techniques which have industrial, commercial or other economic value (‘intellectual property’).
In the higher education and research-intensive sectors a qualifying asset could include but is not limited to:
- designs
- plans, drawings and specifications
- software
- trade secrets
- databases
- source code
- algorithms
- formulae
- land
- tangible moveable property, such as advanced or specialised laboratory equipment
- patents, including future intellectual property arising from collaboration with other entities
- licences granting the use of assets, whether those licences are commercial or non-commercial or relate only to research and development
- intellectual property (all forms)
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