..to support UK spin-outs wanting to drive the fourth industrial revolution

The University of Bristol, Research England and Science Creates announce £8.5m to build Bristol deep tech incubator

UK university spin-outs have received another boost as Science Creates seals a £8.5 million deal to open its third state-of-the-art deep tech incubator in Bristol. The investment, backed by Research England, part of UKRI, and the University of Bristol, marks a significant stride in fostering innovation and supporting university spin-outs geared towards steering the fourth industrial revolution.

The announcement comes two weeks after the UK government published its review of spin-out companies, which also outlines its plans to create a leading innovation ecosystem it hopes will surpass the model of Silicon Valley.

Bristol's growing status as a deep tech hub positions the city to rival well-established counterparts like the golden triangle and actively contribute to the government's ambitious vision of establishing the UK as a science and technology powerhouse.

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 spin-outs which are making the next groundbreaking 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 deep tech 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 deep tech startups and spin-outs. 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 spin-outs (Ziylo), and founder of the Science Creates ecosystem, said:

"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. We also wanted to find people who understood the unique challenges that deep tech spin-outs face. Being part of only 0.3% of UK companies that are spinouts, we decided to do something about it."

"UK spin-outs 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 deep tech companies. This will improve the health of the human race and the health of our planet. The additional physical infrastructure will allow deep tech 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 spin-outs. 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 deep tech spin-outs, 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.

John Williams, Venture Partner at SCVC (Science Creates Ventures) and an exited AI founder of the Bristol-Tokyo AI company Kudan, comments:

"Science Creates' deep tech members are rapidly adopting AI across their operations. AI will play a huge role in every aspect of deep tech in the future. It's fantastic to see the diverse set of companies across the Science Creates ecosystem, from life sciences to quantum and semiconductors, beginning to adopt it both in their core technologies and to help scale their businesses.

"This major network overhaul will ensure the security, connectivity and bandwidth is there to directly connect to powerful external AI services, such as OpenAI or the recently announced £225m investment to create UK's most powerful supercomputer in Bristol for AI."