The Innovation Launchpad Network will connect university researchers with the UK’s nine Catapult centres—organisations that bridge the gap between lab discoveries and commercial products—to speed up the development of new technologies in net zero, healthcare, and resilience. Most academic discoveries never reach the market because researchers lack routes to industry partners, manufacturing expertise, or funding to scale prototypes. This network directly tackles that gap by creating a structured pipeline: academics with promising ideas will be matched with Catapult teams that can test, refine, and commercialise them. The network also prioritises researchers who have never worked with Catapults before, broadening the pool of innovators beyond the usual established academics. If successful, the network could accelerate the deployment of cleaner energy systems, more resilient infrastructure, and new medical devices—technologies that currently stall between the lab bench and real-world use. It also aims to make the innovation ecosystem more inclusive by actively recruiting and training a more diverse set of researchers, rather than relying on the same small group of repeat award-winners.
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The Innovation Launchpad network will bring together cross disciplinary teams from across academia, facilitating engagement with all nine Catapults across the three thematic areas targeted (Net Zero, Healthcare & Wellbeing and Resilience). The network has a broad geographical representation, with three of the four home nations represented through the network of Principal and Co-Investigators and all three thematic areas covered by their inclusion. We will be supported by a wider Steering Panel, who will bring further expertise across all three themes and experience of working across all nine of the Catapult Centres. The network will provide a pipeline of new knowledge aligned to future industry needs that address global challenges, bringing together cross functional teams from across academia and facilitating their engagement with the Catapults. It will identify engagement opportunities to allow academics to collaborate with their colleagues in the Catapult Centres, growing the maturity of new technologies, tools & techniques, and diffuse the new understanding created across the Catapult network. A key part of this vision will be to enable collaboration between individuals and groups who are yet to engage with the Catapults. The network has representation from across the UK. Each of the network members will be charged with targeting and developing strong relationships with the knowledge exchange (KE) teams in their areas effectively creating a network of networks with connections across their region. By including the KE teams in the universities in each area we hope to spot opportunities and signpost academics with potential discoveries to the opportunities provided by the network and ultimately to the catapults. A range of studies have noted that significant gaps exist between the diversity of the award winners in academia. The Network recognises that the provision of equal opportunity, valuing diversity and promoting a culture of inclusion is vital to our success and that this means that we must find new ways of identifying, promoting and fulfilling future research needs beyond the traditional approach of awarding fellowships to established academics, which just reinforces the status quo. Our EDI strategy is designed to proactively create this opportunity for the Network to make a significant positive impact in influencing this, through the training of the participants in the network, and through fostering new collaborations between academia and the catapults.
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