Royal Society fund to invest in innovation

Royal Society fund to invest in innovation

News

Business leaders have donated £5m to the Royal Society Enterprise Fund to finance technology spin-outs from scientific research.

The venture philanthropy fund will provide seed investments of between £250,000 and £2m to back start-ups based on advances in physical sciences and engineering. All financial gains will be returned to the fund for reinvestment in future scientific innovations.

Andrew Mackintosh, chief executive of the Royal Society Enterprise Fund, said, “Our philanthropic structure combined with our highly commercial approach and unrivalled access to the UK science base will unlock new technologies and ideas that will bring significant and lasting economic and societal benefits to the UK.”

Donors include Lord Sainsbury and Roger Brooke, who approached Sir Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, with the idea. Brooke said, “The Enterprise Fund is an exciting, measurable, sustainable and high impact model of philanthropy strengthening science and our future economic health.”

The Royal Society has set a target fund size of £20m.