Science Creates has secured £8.5 million to build a third DeepTech incubator in Bristol to support UK spinouts.
The University of Bristol, Research England and Science Creates announced the investment, backed by Research England, part of UKRI, and the University of Bristol.
From next year, the new 30,000 sq ft building will provide capacity to incubate approximately 275 new companies from West of England universities and beyond. Specifically, it will accommodate spinouts which are making the next ground-breaking discoveries in quantum and engineering biology. Facilities include ducted fume cupboards, containment level two labs, a new dedicated AI server capability connectivity and high speed internet.
The third incubator will increase its state-of-the-art facilities by over 65% to 75,000 sq ft. Just two years ago, Science Creates opened its Bristol Old Market DeepTech incubator with support from UKRI and the University of Bristol. A year after opening, it was fully occupied.
To date, Science Creates has supported over 100 DeepTech startups and spinouts. Its facilities provide essential R&D space and support to some of the UK’s most promising quantum and BioTech companies including delta g, QLM, Scarlet Therapeutics and Imophoron.
Harry Destecroix, founder of one of the UK’s most successful spinouts, Ziylo – founded the Science Creates ecosystem.
“We founded Science Creates in 2015, just one year after spinning out Ziylo, because the biggest barrier we faced was access to advanced research facilities,” he said.
“We also wanted to find people who understood the unique challenges that DeepTech spinouts face. Being part of only 0.3% of UK companies that are spinouts, we decided to do something about it.
“UK spinouts are, and will be, driving the fourth industrial revolution. All we want to do is help world-class engineers and scientists who have discovered important technological breakthroughs, to build impactful DeepTech companies.
“This will improve the health of the human race and the health of our planet. The additional physical infrastructure will allow DeepTech companies to scale and emerge.”
Dr Jon Hunt, the University of Bristol’s executive director for research, enterprise & innovation, said: “The University of Bristol is a great powerhouse for spinouts. This success is attributable to excellent research by world class academics combined with a high-quality research commercialisation team and a vibrant, entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“The new incubator, located in the heart of our new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, will help create the next generation of DeepTech spinouts, in quantum, cyber, engineering biology and much more. I hope and expect many of these companies will thrive and grow to help us deliver on our mission to make a positive impact locally, nationally, and globally by addressing society’s greatest challenges.”
Alongside the new incubator, Science Creates is also announcing a major upgrade to its IT network infrastructure across all of its sites, with allowing companies access of up to 10GB of internet bandwidth. This ensures they can continue to leverage supercomputing and AI.