We help universities and cities build talent and innovation pipelines to unlock enterprise potential and job creation. We focus on seeding ecosystems with entrepreurially-minded commercially-aware researchers connected to local business communities.
About us
Spin Up Science was incorporated in 2018 to catalyse the growth of deep tech ecosystems. We believe entrepreneurial scientists have the potential to solve global problems. We also believe that the best way to support entrepreneurs is to build ecosystems where startups can thrive.
The University Knowledge Exchange Framework report identified ecosystems as a vital factor in effective research commercialisation. Our focus is to grow and build ecosystems by creating a critical mass of entrepreneurial researchers, accelerating concepts to companies, empowering startups and strengthening connections between academia and the ecosystem.
Building Ecosystems
The Spin Up Science model of ecosystem generation attempts to unite the ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ processes of ecosystem development identified by the MIT: Skoltech Initiative.
We aim to address the identified friction between these two models by obtaining support from university leadership early on, while rapidly seeding the region with entrepreneurially-minded postgraduate students to catalyse growth of the newly formed ecosystems.
Winners: Falling Walls
In 2021, we were named as Winners in Science and Innovation Management at Falling Walls for our people based approach to building ecosystems.
Falling Walls celebrates the people and projects delivering scientific breakthroughs into society.
Our Model
Our model is simple. By sitting at the crossroads between innovative ideas and academic institutions, we work to create a pool of commercially aware and entrepreneurially-minded postgraduate researchers and support interactions that can spark the growth of startup communities.
Why commercialise research?
The answers to some of the biggest global problems lie in university research, grounded in science and engineering. The research to unlock these advances is largely sourced from public funding, so there is a duty to build pathways to move these discoveries into the public domain. The concepts are often set to have global impact, such as novel therapeutics for the treatment of disease, quantum toolsets to fuel the next generation of computing, or advances in materials for the protection and enhancement of human health.
We are scientists and engineers building ecosystems.
We want new discoveries to deliver impact
by taking research out of the lab and into the world
Why build ecosystems?
Taking scientific discoveries out of the lab and into the marketplace is exceptionally difficult. Overcoming the barriers and challenges that easily derail such efforts requires a coordinated effort with support and access to infrastructure, social capital, and finance; the support of an ecosystem.
Empower scientists, change the world
World-changing companies by mould-breaking people
Across the UK, there is a high attrition rate of scientists and engineers leaving their field leading to a shortage in the high tech labour force. A publication by the Royal Society estimates that 53% of postgraduate researchers completing a PhD abandon their discipline within one year of graduating; a trend driven by the low availability of academic positions and the reluctance to enter industrial placements through the traditional graduate-scheme pathways.
Preparing those at the forefront of technology development with the skill sets necessary to lead businesses, empowers scientists and engineers to reach their full potential and helps build game-changing companies.
Dr Benjamin Miles,
CEO & Founder, Spin Up Science
