Bristol tech incubator SETsquared has announced that companies supported by its Scale-Up Programme will contribute £1.3bn GVA to the 海角视频 economy between 2018 and 2030.
Based at the city’s Engine Shed innovation hub, the University of Bristol incubator supports the growth of technology start-ups, helping them move from initial ideas into commercial viability.
An independent report from Warwick Economics Development showed the programme has helped raise £72m collaborative research and development funding for scale-up members, £14.2m collaborative funding for SETsquared partner universities, and secure 111 funded projects, giving a 35.5% success rate of winning grants.
This in addition to helping companies secure £713m investment and members more than double their headcount, with an increase of 260% between 2018 and 2030.
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Established in 2018, SETsquared’s Scale-Up Programme supports innovative, growing businesses to raise public and private investment to collaborate on research and development with its six partner universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey).
Funded by Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund, the Programme grew a membership base of 450+ 海角视频-wide innovation-led companies across key sectors, including digital innovation, health and wellbeing, advanced engineering and manufacturing and environment, sustainability, marine and maritime. For every £1 of funding, the Scale-Up Programme’s return on investment is £7.50.
Alice Frost, director of knowledge exchange, Research England said: “Leveraging their collective capabilities, SETsquared’s Scale-Up programme has demonstrated how significant commercial outcomes can be achieved by universities working together as a cluster, building a concentration of opportunity and activity. The project has provided one of the models of leading-edge commercialisation collaborative practice supported by Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund, and its insights will contribute to our development of national policy evidence and institutional best practice materials.”
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Karen Brooks, head of Scale-Up, SETsquared added: “The Scale-Up Programme has proven to be a highly successful model to facilitate university and harder-to-engage SME R&D collaborations. It has created a dynamic market where researchers and companies can find the right partner to work with, greatly benefiting both parties. Academics need to demonstrate the impact of their research, and companies need university-grade research to continually develop and verify their cutting-edge innovations.
The stats, however, only tell one side of the story. Behind the figures lie many examples of world-leading innovations that will one day transform how we live and work, access healthcare, and significantly contribute to meeting NetZero targets. I’m incredibly proud of our part in setting them on this growth trajectory. Securing investment and improved business performance now is highly likely to have longer-term impacts on their business growth terms in creating further jobs and GVA within the economy.”
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