Having launched an impressive 34
businesses to date, North East university collaboration Northern Accelerator
has been awarded a further £3.6m from Research England to continue its
successful programme, expanding its partnership in the North East and rolling
out its flagship support model to universities in the South of England.
Northern Accelerator was set up to develop the
ecosystem for creation of spin-out businesses from the North East’s
universities, strengthening the region’s knowledge economy and helping address
regional imbalance. Funded by Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund and
the European Regional Development Fund, Northern Accelerator brings together
academics and business leaders, with a host of funding and support, to form
sustainable businesses that create more and better jobs.
Carolyn
Horrocks, IP Commercialisation Manager in Northumbria’s Research and Innovation
Services team, said:
“Northumbria University has a rapidly growing research portfolio with ambitions
to take more of our innovations to market for the
benefit of our community and economy. Northern Accelerator’s unique integrated
support enables us to harness our research and create innovative businesses
that address real-world challenges, making a difference in this region and
beyond.”
An expanding partnership
From July, Teesside University has joined the
universities of Northumbria, Durham, Newcastle, and Sunderland, expanding the
partnership across the whole of the North East and further strengthening the
pipeline of innovative commercial opportunities coming from the region’s
world-class university research.
Northern Accelerator’s flagship support
programme, Executives into Business, which has seen 34 experienced business
executives leading spin-out businesses through their start-up stage and beyond,
has attracted national attention for its success and will now be adopted by the
award-winning enterprise partnership, SETsquared, consisting of the
universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey.
As well as launching a series of highly investible
innovative businesses, Northern Accelerator’s support offering has seen over
200 academics trained in impact and entrepreneurship, and £2.1m funding awarded
to academics to progress 50 research projects closer to commercialisation.
A Northern Accelerator Seed Investment Fund,
managed by Northstar Ventures, has invested a total of £1.8m into 9 businesses,
and this will act as a cornerstone for the development of a much larger
long-term venture capital fund for university spin-outs in the region.
The additional funding from Research England’s
Connecting Capability Fund will allow the partnership to continue this support
offering for an additional two years, further developing the pipeline of
investible spin-out propositions, as well as introducing a new scale-up
programme, for a few businesses deemed to have significant high growth
potential.
Dr Tim Hammond, Northern Accelerator Project
Lead, said: “Northern Accelerator evolved from an initial Executives into
Business programme into a full programme of support and we’re really bolstering
the region’s innovation ecosystem with the creation of a long-term venture
capital fund for spin-out businesses. It is fantastic to receive confirmation
that we’ve been successful in our bid for further CCF funding, allowing us to
continue the good work already undertaken to contribute to regional prosperity
and societal impact.”
Alan Welby, Innovation Director at North East
Local Enterprise Partnership, added: “Having the right funding and innovation
infrastructure in place on a regional level is vital to create the conditions
for spin-out businesses to grow and flourish and, in that respect, Northern
Accelerator plays an important role. I am delighted that Northern Accelerator
has received follow-on funding. It proves that that programme is delivering
well – onwards and upwards!”
Northumbria’s latest spinout
company, PulmoBioMed, was founded by Associate Professor of Cellular and
Molecular Sciences, Dr Sterghios Moschos. The creation of the medtech company,
whose lead product for collecting breath samples could revolutionise diagnosis
of a range of diseases, including Covid-19, was supported by Northern
Accelerator. Read more about PulmoBioMed and its innovative aerosol collecting
device, PBM-Hale™, on the news pages of our website.
Image caption: Northern Accelerator programme leads. From left to right:
- Omar Al-Janabi, Innovation, IP & Commercialisation Manager – Teesside University
- Tim Hammond, Director Commercialisation & Economic Development – Durham University
- Edwin Milligan, Northern Accelerator Project Manager
- Nickola Gray, Business Development Manager – University of Sunderland
- David Huntley, Head of Company Creation – Newcastle University
- Lizzie Withington, Company Creation Manager – Newcastle University
- Hugh Rhodes, IP & Commercialisation Manager – Northumbria University
