A new collaboration between the University of Aberdeen, Opportunity North East (ONE), and Innovate UK is helping the next generation of innovators in tech, life sciences, and energy to explore their research and technologies.

The three partners are co-funding the new North East market discovery programme via UK ICURe, the UK’s leading early-stage research accelerator.

Ten teams of researchers are embarking on an eight-week journey in the programme, and are set to gain market awareness and customer discovery skills. They’ll use insights and tools to explore their innovation’s commercial potential and identify market demand.

ICURe has a strong track record of boosting academic commercialisation and startups. Over 500 teams across the UK have benefited from ICURe to date, and it’s supported the establishment of more than 200 startup companies.

It also serves as a gateway to Innovate UK, connecting startup prospects at an early stage and enabling them to participate in follow-on programmes as they launch and grow their businesses.

ONE and the University of Aberdeen are committed to growing the life sciences sector in North East Scotland as part of a broader action and investment to diversify the economy.

ONE BioHub, which opened last year, is the focal point for commercialisation and growth support provided by ONE and its partners to entrepreneurs, founders, startups, spinouts, and scaling businesses.

Dr Deborah O’Neil OBE FRSE, CEO of biotech firm NovaBiotics, and chair of the ONE Life Sciences board, said: “This new partnership between ONE, the University of Aberdeen and Innovate UK is significant.

“It brings the national innovation agency’s resources into the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem we are building for life sciences with ONE BioHub at its heart.

“The participating teams will benefit from the proven ICURe programme and identify the commercial potential and market demand for their innovation – the first step towards successful commercialisation.”

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Professor Peter Edwards, vice-principal regional engagement at the University of Aberdeen, also commented: “The university has an excellent reputation for producing and nurturing innovative spinouts and startups, which help change lives, transform society for the better and support our region’s economy.

“The programme will support those ground-breaking projects that are needed to meet future challenges by helping research teams take their commercially promising ideas to market faster, ensuring we remain at the cutting edge of research and innovation.”