The University of Bradford has been rated outstanding for its commercialisation and business start-up activities, in results published by Research England.

The Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) results, the fourth so far published, rate the university highly for continuous professional development, business start-ups, intellectual property, and commercialisation.

The results also stated that the university "generated excellent research across all disciplines".

Professor Sherif El-Khamisy, pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation, said: "The latest KEF results show the University of Bradford excels in what we call ‘knowledge transfer’, which means taking cutting-edge academic knowledge and applying it to real-world situations, often helping companies innovate or improve products.

"We have a track record of working with businesses to help them improve their processes and also for commercialising intellectual property.

"We have also invested heavily in our enterprise ecosystem, where we actively encourage staff, students, and members of the public to submit business ideas.

"We then use our expertise to help them take those ideas from concept to market.

"We aim to become the UK’s number one destination for business start-ups."

The university's £2.5m Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem, launched in January, and its Digital Health Enterprise Zone were highlighted as key initiatives.