Imperial joins European discussion on accelerating innovation

Two members of the Imperial community attended a roundtable in Brussels this week, discussing how Europe can increase rates of research translation.

Dr Simon Hepworth, Director of Enterprise, gave key remarks at the roundtable, outlining some of the challenges for universities and spinout companies engaging with venture capital firms and investors. He also gave context to the scale of invention that is required to build a larger number of companies that reach an initial public offering (IPO) both in the UK and across Europe.

He discussed what investors look for in terms and conditions when taking equity stakes in spinout companies, including the advantage of uniform and standard approaches to spinout terms.

Dr Hepworth outlined Imperial’s work as part of TenU, an international collaboration of leading technology transfer offices from around the world, to create a guideline set of conditions for spinning out companies that ensures the best outcomes for inventors and investors. Dr Hepworth led the development of the University Spin Out Terms guide that gives a blueprint in creating founder-friendly equity deals when spinning out software-based companies.

Founders Choice™, Imperial's spinout formation process and associated entrepreneurial education and support offer, has recently been refreshed to help to increase the rate and speed of spinout formations, improve the experience for spinout founders and remove barriers to success of new companies. Spinout founders at Imperial receive dedicated project support and guidance and can keep up to 95% of the founding equity in their new spinout.

Experiences from the cutting-edge

Dr Oscar Calderon Agudo, Advanced Research Fellow in the Department of Earth Science & Engineering, took part in discussions to provide insights on his experience of holding a European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder grant, awarded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme.

Dr Agudo is part of the QUSTom (Quantitative Ultrasound Stochastic Tomography) project which is developing a revolutionary method for ultrasound breast cancer imaging that could replace current X-ray techniques such as mammograms. The project is entering the stage of clinical validation for the new method at a partner hospital in Barcelona.

Dr Agudo’s research focuses on an imaging technique called full-waveform inversion (FWI), widely used to create images of the Earth’s subsurface. His work in QUSTom is looking to utilise FWI for use in breast cancer detection  to support clinicians with diagnosis. Ultrasound imaging has the potential to create much more detailed images than current techniques, and removes any risks of radiation from X-ray detection techniques.

EIC Pathfinder grants supporting research projects in technology readiness levels (TRLs) 1-4 and target deep technology projects that have a high degree of scientific and technological ambition. The UK is now fully associated to Horizon Europe and Imperial research can participate in and lead projects across the programme. To find out more about opportunities in Horizon Europe, please get in touch with the Research Office and the Enterprise Research Impact Management Office.