SETsquared is the enterprise partnership of six leading research-led UK universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey. Ranked as the Global No. 1 University Business Incubator by UBI Global, it provides a wide range of support programmes to help turn ideas and research into thriving businesses. From students and academic researchers to start-up tech founders and growth company leaders – SETsquared’s programmes support university-connected ventures across the full lifecycle. Since its inception in 2002, SETsquared has supported 6,000+ entrepreneurs to raise over £2.72bn investment. Award-winning, flagship programmes include Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) and the Scale-Up Programme. ICURe, funded by Innovate UK, enables early career researchers with commercially promising research, science, or technology - the opportunity to ‘get out of the lab’ and validate the market for their innovation. This ‘revolving door’ concept eg taking the research out of the campus to establish a commercial market has proven to be a critical springboard in helping commercially promising UK research flourish. 400+ teams have taken part and it has helped create 150+ new spin-out companies which have gone on to create 500+ jobs.
Established in 2018, SETsquared’s Scale-Up Programme provides support to innovative SMEs to collaborate on research, development, and innovation with its six partner universities and raise public and private investment to fund their research & development. To date, it has helped its growing membership of 350+ innovative, scaling companies, unlock £96.5m investment in R&D.