The Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘Spotlight on Spinouts’ report 2026 shows that total value creation by companies spun out of Newcastle University was £271.8M between 2010 and 2025. It also highlights that 15 spinouts have been launched since 2022.

This year’s report reveals that in 2025, UK spinouts secured £1.3 billion in venture capital (VC) funding, particularly in key sectors such as biotech and pharma, AI and quantum.

One example, NunaBio, an innovative synthetic DNA manufacturing spinout from Newcastle University, recently secured £6.5 million in funding to scale up its proprietary and next-generation enzymatic DNA platform.

The funding will allow NunaBio to continue its advances in a new approach to DNA manufacturing. In doing so, it will address a critical bottleneck in biotechnology by producing high-quality synthetic DNA rapidly and at scale, supported by the development of a global infrastructure network. This will enable faster development of vaccines, gene therapies, diagnostics and other life-changing technologies.

Trajectory of overall growth

UK spinout activity is becoming increasingly geographically diverse, the report says, with strong spinout growth across a number of UK universities beyond the ‘Golden Triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge.

The report also shows that the UK has been on a trajectory of overall growth with more than 2000 spinouts having emerged since 2010 with a value of £49 billion. These spinouts have also created 27,000 jobs across the UK, with 70% of these created since 2020.

Begun in 2021, the Royal Academy’s Spotlight on Spinouts series provides an examination of the value spinouts create, and what support helps them scale.

Professor Jane Robinson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Business, Partnerships and Place, Newcastle University, said: “This latest report from the Royal Academy of Engineering shows that Newcastle University continues to be sector-leading for spinout performance.

“Building on the successful launch of the North East Spinout Inspire Fund with our regional partners, and with Newcastle Innovations well-positioned to help drive investment in spinouts and deliver innovation and growth, we can ensure this strong performance continues benefiting the North East and beyond.”

Newcastle University launched Newcastle Innovations earlier this year to make it faster and easier for businesses, investors and partners to collaborate with the University and turn ideas into growth.

Newcastle Innovations provides a single, joined‑up front door to the University’s innovation, commercialisation and partnership activity, simplifying access to expertise, facilities, talent, funding pathways and commercial support.

Additionally, working together as Universities for North East England (UNEE), the five North East Universities have joined forces with North East Mayor Kim McGuinness to help transform academic research into high-growth new businesses through the £22.5M North East Spinout Inspire Fund. 

The 2026 Spotlight on Spinouts report shows that gender diversity among UK spinout leadership has improved over time but has shown recent signs of stalling. 17% of spinouts founded since 2020 have at least one female founder, an increase from 7% in the period between 2010-2014 but this is broadly unchanged from the previous five years.

The 2026 analysis also compares UK and European spinout value creation and shows that the UK leads for spinout value creation in Europe, performing strongly both overall and at the institutional level. The UK remains ahead of countries such as Germany and France, hosting five of Europe’s top 10 universities for spinout value creation.