Researchers from the department have been selected by InovateUK under their Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme to bring their technology bioinspired green method for mesoporous silica into the wider commercial market.
ICURe is an online customer discovery programme designed using lean start-up methodology. It trains, funds and supports teams led by university early-career researchers to determine whether there is a market for products or services that utilise their research, science or technology.
The final day of the ICURe journey consisted of a business pitch presentation before a panel of bio-industry experts. This presentation was delivered by entrepreneurial lead, Dr Carlos Brambila. The presentation received widely positive responses from the panel, whose report described the presentation as 'excellent' and identified the project as 'commercially sound', as well as describing several areas of strength of our technology.
Dr Brambila commented: "This has been a great learning opportunity for us, and the input from the panelists will surely shape the future of our research and commercialisation activities. Particularly, the panelists said that our technology had a lot of potential in the drug delivery market and praised our research as providing “a new and novel approach to a known technology”
"The ICURe journey has helped us realise the significant potential that our technology has in the markets of drug delivery and environmental protection. We are currently taking initial steps towards the formation of a spin-out company, through which will continue to pursue the knowledge exchange between our research group and the wider industry. By forming our own company, we can tap into the potential of this technology by forming influential partnerships and accessing a diversity of sources for entrepreneurial funding".