The funding will support Queen Mary researchers to accelerate the transition from research concepts into real-world impact, attracting investment that creates new businesses and jobs. It will increase knowledge exchange between researchers and industries, from local businesses to international companies.
The IAA support enables Queen Mary to create new collaborations with a diverse range of external stakeholders including policymakers, NGOs, businesses and public beneficiaries.
The programme, now in its 10th year, has previously provided early-stage support to Queen Mary projects that have gone on to become successful ventures. Examples include:
- Professor Kostya Trachenko helping to provide modelling of the damage that radiation inflicts on a given material, which has subsequently influenced international policy on nuclear materials and waste storage.
- Visual analytics platform Dragonfly AI being named one of the top 100 most disruptive technologies in advertising in 2016
- The Queen Mary Cognitive Science Group using their research insights into the mechanisms behind communication and miscommunication in clinical settings to develop tools and methods that are now being used widely in mental healthcare in the UK and beyond.
Queen Mary is already a leading organisation when it comes to commercial impact, with 18 spin-out companies and 130 commercial licences obtained. In the 2019 Entrepreneurial Impact Rankings, the University ranked fourth in the UK for commercialising research. Queen Mary will also be able to extend these successes to the Biosciences with further support from the BBSRC and MRC research councils.
Professor Andrew Livingston, Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation) at Queen Mary University of London, said: "We are grateful to receive this funding from UKRI, which will support some of our most talented researchers in turning their exciting ideas into businesses, products and services that benefit people around the world.
"Funding initiatives such as the IAA encourage a culture of innovation within universities and provide vital early-stage support that can be the decisive factor in whether a project is ultimately successful or not. We have a strong track record of entrepreneurial successes at Queen Mary, and I am excited that we will be able to build on this further with UKRI's support."
UKRI Director of Commercialisation Tony Soteriou, said: "The UK is home to some of the brightest, most innovative and creative research teams in the world. They have the ideas and they have the entrepreneurial energy to create businesses and services that could turn sectors on their head.
"What they need, what every great commercial idea needs, is support in the critical early stages. The Impact Acceleration Account is the catalyst that allows projects to grow to the next level, attracting investment, forging partnerships and creating jobs.
"The breadth of UKRI allows us to work right across the UK's world-class research and innovation system to ensure it builds a green future, secures better health, ageing and wellbeing, tackles infections, and builds a secure and resilient world."
UKRI Chief Executive Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser said: "Research and innovation has the potential to improve people's lives and livelihoods, rejuvenating communities across the UK and tackling global challenges. It is imperative that we harness that potential.
"The path between discovery and impact is not simple and so it is vital that we provide flexible support that allows talented people and teams, and world-class institutions to connect discovery to prosperity and public good.
"Our impact acceleration funding has a fantastic track-record in providing support that helps brilliant ideas become realities that make a real difference."
