The innovation centre for scientific enterprise will open in Bristol this Friday in conjunction with British science week.
Incubator Unit DX, a collaboration between enterprise collaboration partnership SetSquared and Invest Bristol & Bath, will launch tomorrow to coincide with British science week.
SetSquared is a partnership between Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey universities.
The independent science incubator will accommodate up to 100 scientists and engineers across its 15,000 square foot facility. It will offer individual lab benches and private laboratories for startups and industrial R&D teams at a repurposed industrial unit in central Bristol.
Founded by Harry Destecroix, also co-founder and chief executive of Bristol University spinout Ziylo, developer of sugar-sensing molecules, Unit DX was launched without public funding and is itself a startup.
Drawing on his difficulties in launching his own spinout, Destecroix hopes Unit DX will solve the problem of the UK’s scientific research output not being converted into commercial technology. He also hopes to solve infrastructure problems and lower the barriers to entry for scientific entrepreneurs.
Destecroix said: “Scientific companies need spaces built specifically for them. They need laboratory space to conduct research and access to state-of-the-art instrumentation. Unit DX is designed around the needs of scientists and will lower the time and cost required to take a great idea and turn it into real world, working technology.
“I am especially excited about what is going to be achieved when great scientific minds from across different disciplines such as synthetic biology and quantum technologies come together under one roof, in one of the UK’s most entrepreneurial cities.”