{"id":50484,"date":"2026-09-16T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/?p=50484"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:11:14","slug":"deputy-prime-minister-yodchanan-presides-over-launch-of-uhc-consortium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/en\/50484\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Prime Minister Yodchanan presides over launch of UHC Consortium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NXPO and the National Innovation Agency (NIA), both under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), in collaboration with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and partner organizations, held a launch event for the University Holding Company Consortium (UHC Consortium) on 15 September 2026 at the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The launch was presided over by Prof. Dr. Yodchanan Wongsawat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The collaboration brings together 15 higher education institutions and their respective holding companies, along with public- and private-sector organizations, to pool financial resources, capabilities, and business opportunities. The initiative aims to drive Deep Tech research toward commercial utilization and business growth, with targets of establishing 100 Deep Tech spin-off companies, five companies ready to list on the stock market, and one unicorn company by 2032.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In his keynote address, titled \u201cThailand New Economy: From Knowledge to National Growth,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Yodchanan emphasized that most of the country\u2019s knowledge and research are concentrated in universities. The key challenge, therefore, is to turn this knowledge into value by identifying and developing research outputs into intellectual property, before advancing them through licensing or the establishment of startup or spin-off businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Prof. Dr. Yodchanan further noted that the UHC Consortium would strengthen capabilities and enable universities to undertake activities that may be difficult to accomplish individually. For example, co-investment by multiple universities in the same company could facilitate multicenter application testing or clinical research. It would also enable the network to jointly screen promising technologies and talent, reduce investment risks, and build greater confidence among external investors. Investment by university holding companies and the successful commercialization of research can help establish track records and enhance the credibility of businesses. These are important foundations for attracting foreign investment and expanding businesses into global markets. The ultimate goal is to enable businesses emerging from Thai research to compete internationally. As these businesses grow, the benefits will return to the country and its people through greater access to technologies at lower costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to use Thai technologies to attract foreign investment into Thailand,\u201d Prof. Dr. Yodchanan emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asst. Prof. Dr. Tanyanuparb Anantana, Vice President of Chiang Mai University and one of the key drivers of the collaboration, presented details of the initiative. He noted that the UHC mechanism has been in operation in Thailand since 2018 and currently includes 15 UHCs. Thai universities have a large number of high-potential research outputs and technologies, but challenges remain in translating these into commercial applications, including the readiness of spin-off companies. The Consortium was therefore designed to help address these challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The UHC Consortium\u2019s operations are divided into three main programs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. UHC Synergy<\/strong>: Pooling capital among UHCs, both through direct investment and investment via NIA\u2019s holding company. This mechanism will help early-stage spin-offs gain faster access to capital, complemented by other support mechanisms from NIA, the Technology and Innovation-based Enterprise Development Fund (TED Fund), and the Research and Innovation Acceleration Agency for Competitiveness and Area Development (RCAD).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. UHC Venture Builder:<\/strong> Pooling capabilities by bringing together the technology teams, business models, and market-entry plans of individual universities for joint development. The program will also connect these efforts with support from NIA, TED Fund, and InnoSpace (Thailand).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. UHC Innovation Catalyst<\/strong>: Pooling business opportunities by connecting spin-off companies with markets, business scaling opportunities, access to capital markets, and global partner networks. This will be carried out in collaboration with the Board of Investment (BOI), SET, and venture capital (VC) and corporate venture capital (CVC) investors.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    The UHC Consortium brings together 15 higher education institutions and their respective holding companies: Chulalongkorn University, Khon Kaen University, Kasetsart University, Chiang Mai University, Thaksin University, King Mongkut\u2019s University of Technology Thonburi, Suranaree University of Technology, Thammasat University, Maejo University, Mahidol University, Walailak University, Silpakorn University, Prince of Songkla University, King Mongkut\u2019s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC). The Consortium aims to combine the strengths of each university as shared resources across the network, including research and intellectual property, personnel and expertise, laboratories and infrastructure, and industry networks. The initiative builds on the University Holding Company (UHC) mechanism, which NXPO has been promoting through the development of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office Regulation on Public-Private Partnerships in Projects Utilizing Research and Innovation, B.E. 2566 (2023). The regulation was introduced to address limitations and provide greater legal clarity regarding co-investment. The initiative has subsequently been expanded from UHC operations at individual universities to collaboration under the Consortium model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The event also featured an announcement of a Private Equity Trust (PE Trust), established jointly by SET, the Thailand Capital Market Development Fund (CMDF), NIA, and public- and private-sector partners. With initial capital of THB 1 billion, the Trust will invest in New Economy businesses, covering Deep Tech, digital technology and artificial intelligence, medical and health technologies, and agriculture and future food technologies. The PE Trust represents another mechanism to help bridge the funding gap for innovative businesses, enabling them to scale up and eventually enter the capital market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NXPO and the National Innovation Agency (NIA), both und […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[1870,3240],"class_list":["post-50484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-uhc-en","tag-uhc-consortium-en"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Deputy-Prime-Minister-Yodchanan-presides-over-launch-of-UHC-Consortium.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/author\/adminsti\/"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Deputy-Prime-Minister-Yodchanan-presides-over-launch-of-UHC-Consortium.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50496,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50484\/revisions\/50496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}