United Kingdom, experimentation
ICURe, from university research to spinouts
UK Research and Innovation's ICURe impact report says spinout companies from the programme secured £326 million in investment funding and created more than 1,400 jobs from 2014 onward, after research teams were trained and funded to test markets before deciding whether to spin out.
326,000,000 GBP, investment secured by icure spinouts, 2024. 1,400 jobs, jobs created by icure spinouts, 2024. UK Research and Innovation, ICURe impact report, retrieved 2026-08-31.
The move, and what it needed
ICURe gives research teams funding, coaching and a disciplined market-discovery period in which they conduct more than 100 customer interviews before a university-backed go/no-go decision. Teams advised to spin out can then apply for follow-on funding, turning technology-transfer work into an investable proposition rather than treating a patent as a company.
Preconditions
- Universities and research institutes with discoveries, translational staff and authority to support commercial routes
- Researchers willing to test a problem with users and founders able to lead a company after the discovery phase
- Follow-on grants, investors and technology-transfer offices that can carry a validated opportunity beyond the programme
Where it travelled: Spinout pipelines travel when market discovery, founder formation and follow-on capital are designed as one chain; a grant or patent alone does not create the commercial capabilities and decisions needed for a durable firm.
Limits: The impact report's cumulative investment and job figures cover teams supported by ICURe and do not show the full spinout population, survival, profitability, quality of jobs, counterfactual or the programme's independent contribution. They are programme impact estimates, not a national spinout rate or a guarantee that every participating discovery should become a company.
This record describes what United Kingdom delivered. It is linked to University spinouts because no comparable dataset measures that capability. It does not affect the score or confidence.
More from United Kingdom
6 other deliveries from this country.
Sure Start children's centres, and their erosion
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Legally binding carbon budgets
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Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
UKRI reported more than 1,000 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships running at one time and more than 1,100 Associate projects in May 2026, joining businesses with universities or other research organisations through jointly supervised innovation work.
British Patient Capital, a public venture-capital catalyst
The British Business Bank reported that government-owned British Patient Capital had committed £2.287 billion through 80 fund commitments, 10 co-investments and 18 Future Fund deals by 31 March 2024, with an underlying portfolio of 1,350 companies.
Business-funded R&D as the UK's dominant research sector
The Office for National Statistics reported that UK businesses performed £50.0 billion of R&D in 2023, 69% of the country's £72.6 billion gross domestic R&D total.