Universities establish Midlands Mindforge to invest in region’s spinouts and startups

Aston University and the University of Warwick have joined six other research-intensive Midlands universities to form an investment company for early-stage technology business.

Midlands Mindforge plans to raise up to £250 million from institutional investors, strategic corporate partners, and other qualifying individuals. This funding will help fledgling enterprises to grow into successful companies with real-world impact, addressing a significant funding deficit for such ventures in the region.

The Midlands Innovation partnership also involves the University of Birmingham, Cranfield University, Keele University, University of Leicester, Loughborough University, and University of Nottingham.

Together, they will work to create a fertile environment for businesses in sectors such as clean technology, AI and computational science, life sciences, and health tech.

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Professor Trevor McMillan OBE, Chair of the Midlands Innovation Board and Vice Chancellor of Keele University, said: “We have one of the largest research communities in the UK, with more than 14,500 academics who have a strong track record collaborating on innovative research ideas that turn spinouts into successful businesses.

“This new company creates an ecosystem to better support our research entrepreneurs and encourage innovation. By cultivating an environment where post graduate students and researchers with commercial ideas can benefit from early access to investment, we can create opportunities for our people, place, and partnership to flourish.

“Midlands Mindforge will allow our universities to scale up their research and enterprise activity. It is a catalyst for building ground-breaking businesses that help to boost economic growth, create highly skilled jobs, and support the UK’s bid to be a global science and technology superpower.”

Compared with other UK university groupings, Midlands Innovation shares the most post-graduate students, the highest levels of annual income, and the most research disclosures and patents generated per unit of research spend in the last three years.

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