York 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ has become the latest partner of private intellectual property company IP2IPO in a deal worth more than ?2 million to the institution.

The university's Centre for Novel Agricultural Products has signed a 25-year agreement that will see IP2IPO investing at least ?2 million to set up a commercialisation company and to fund the first three years of activity.

The deal was finalised in September, just weeks before IP2IPO floated for more than ?47 million on the Alternative Investment Market, a branch of the Stock Exchange dedicated to new companies.

IP2IPO was created in 2000 as a spin-off from investment bank Beeson Gregory. The bank had invested ?20 million in a new chemistry building at Oxford 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in exchange for a 50 per cent share of all equity in intellectual property generated by the department for 15 years.

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IP2IPO has since taken over the contract from Beeson Gregory.

The nine-person company works in life and physical sciences, investing in early-stage research exploitation in exchange for a share of their university partners' equity in any spin-off company or licensing deal. It works alongside university technology-transfer offices providing expert help in areas such as protecting patents.

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The long-term nature of the four partnerships the company has so far established - it agreed funding for 25 years with King's College London this year and Southampton 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in 2002 - differentiate it from venture capitalists and seedcorn funders, and allows any spin-off to look for other sources of funding as well.

Spike Willcocks of IP2IPO said: "We felt universities in this country, apart from a few growing successes, were not that strong in commercial IP.

Lots of them were allowing their academics to publish rather than patenting."