Following the launch of the Midlands Innovation Commercialisation of Research Accelerator (MICRA) programme in October 2018, the group of universities is delighted to announce that it is on target to deliver against its goals to support development of spin-out companies and attract investment and skills to the Midlands region.

Although early in the programme, MICRA has already identified over 130 new innovations across the eight universities in the partnership and has put together a team of staff dedicated to focusing on supporting them. The team met at Nottingham University on 22nd March to agree an ambitious programme of events, activities and training for the next 18 months.

The team will be exhibiting at the Praxis Auril conference in Harrogate in June, where they will introduce some of the key collaboration areas they are focusing on the to the wider TTO community.

By sharing best practice, setting up collaboration projects and developing a web portal, MICRA will help to accelerate the development of innovations from lab-based research projects to investor-ready commercial products and services. The MICRA programme is funded by a £5 million award from Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund, which supports universities in working together, and with businesses and other partners, to commercialise research.

Simon Jones, Lead Project Manager for MICRA, said: “Now that the team is in place we are all moving ahead with collaborating on a range of projects. Some of these will lead to exciting new research and innovations in timescales which would not have been possible if only one university was working on its own. It will also give us access to much broader opportunities to engage with investors and potential partners to help commercialise the research.”

For further information, please contact James Wilkie, at the University of Birmingham, on 0121 4145712

Notes to editors

Midlands Innovation is a world-class research and innovation partnership, combining the collective excellence of eight leading universities in the heart of the UK – Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick. It unites the power of university research with the unique strengths of Midlands industry to drive cutting-edge research, innovation and skills development. Collectively partners are incubating more than 600 businesses and supporting over 1600 jobs.