Northern Accelerator: Delivering tomorrow’s inventions today

Business and life. Life and business.

Opposite yet identical, different yet founded and furthered by the same cycle – conception; nourishment for growth; growth for propagation; propagation for generational change.

For business, read life. For life in business, though, read Northern Accelerator.

Harnessing the knowledge and insight of experts across Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Teesside and York universities, the flagship programme provides oxygen for innovative ideas to inhale their first commercial breath.

Its Future Founders training programme schools academics on the planks needed to bridge the gap between research and marketplace.

Its Executives into Business platform delivers parental-style guidance, by marrying academics with commercial sector bosses holding great scaling experience.

Its funding support draws investment that lays financial foundations from which to build a place in the world.

And it works.

Since its establishment eight years ago, Northern Accelerator has helped create businesses that provide more than 1000 high-value jobs, and is set to deliver a £140 million return on investment to the region’s economy.

Central to its success is a skilled operational delivery group, which functions as an interface between academia and business.

“We understand both worlds and unite them,” says Lizzie Withington, company creation manager at Newcastle University, which previously helped launch Washington-based motor and powertrain system maker Advanced Electric Machines, and last year celebrated record investment of more than £40 million across its near 40-strong spin-out stable.

She says: “We see inventions at the coal face, and then act almost like midwives to help bring them into the world, applying good and reproducible practice that creates investable spin-outs.

“These companies are working on products and technologies that are going to save and change lives, across areas like cancer treatment and net-zero manufacturing, and it’s a privilege to help them mature.

“A crucial element in doing so is funding; spin-outs need to build teams to deliver their ambitions and, through Northern Accelerator, we’re spotlighting the region – and the mass of activity therein – to investors.

“We’ve created a well-trodden path for spin-outs to flourish.”

That trail is no better highlighted than at Northumbria University, where Northern Accelerator has catalysed a step-change in commercialisation.

Headlined by PulmoBioMed, the Newcastle-based company behind a lung test to boost asthma diagnosis, the institution’s spin-out suite is now growing at speed.

“We had no spin-out activity before Northern Accelerator,” says Chelsea Brain, the university’s IP and commercialisation manager.

She adds: “However, the programme has changed that profoundly.

“Our invention disclosure rate now stands at more than 50 a year, we’re about to complete our next spin-out and we have more in the pipeline.

“PulmoBioMed was our first spin-out in 2020; we used proof of concept money to build prototypes, used the Executives into Business programme and last year helped raise investment for the first time.

“None of what we’ve achieved in recent years would have been possible without Northern Accelerator.”

Such impact, says Michael Bath, senior technology transfer manager at Durham University – whose spin-out portfolio includes Seaham-based greener construction aggregate firm Low Carbon Materials – is helped by Northern Accelerator’s tangibility.

He says: “The mentality of a lot of academics is to look for evidence.

“And through the real stories from across the region’s universities, we’re able to provide that evidence and make the commercialisation process much clearer.

“Initiatives like Future Founders build on that by creating supportive communities for academics to discuss ideas with peers from across the spin-out spectrum, as do fast-start grants.

“The expense of launching a business had previously deterred some academics.

“But by providing them with a £10,000 grant, to spend on things like legal and accountancy costs, those concerns are eased.”

And equally important, say Michael and Chelsea, is the collaborative spirit embedded within Northern Accelerator, which lays the groundwork for entities to not just develop out of the region’s universities but stay rooted to the area long after they’ve outgrown their laboratory benches.

Michael says: “There’s quite a poignant Apache saying that wisdom sits in places, and Northern Accelerator does that for the North East.

“We’ve built a base of experiences, learnings and stories, which we’re able to share collectively with academics under the Northern Accelerator umbrella, and therefore help a lot more spin-out journeys.”

Chelsea adds: “We have a powerful cluster of universities, which has an abundance of commercialisation opportunities and potential to create much high-value employment.

“And through Northern Accelerator, we’re helping as many as possible realise those ambitions across the region.”

 

Pictured, above, from left to right, are Lizzie Withington, Newcastle University company creation manager; Michael Bath, Durham University senior technology transfer manager; and Chelsea Brain, Northumbria University IP and commercialisation manager

www.northernaccelerator.org

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