North East England’s five universities are joining forces with North East Mayor Kim McGuinness to help transform academic research into high-growth new businesses.  

The North East Spinout Inspire Fund is supported by £10m investment from the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA) and a total of £12.5m from Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside universities. It will focus on transforming cutting-edge research into high-growth new businesses based in North East England.

The Inspire Fund will particularly support early-stage spinout businesses, where risk is higher and funding is often harder to secure from private sector investors alone. The North East MSA and the universities have identified this as a critical gap in the current set-up.  

In its first five years, the Fund will support at least 30 spinout firms.  

The Fund is part of the North East MSA £100m regional investment framework administered by The North East Fund. Along with both the North East Accelerate and North East Elevate funds, it aims to strengthen access to early-stage finance for start up, scale up and growing companies in North East England, and tackle long-standing market failures that have hampered innovation-led growth in the region.  

Professor Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor and President of Newcastle University, said:  "This fund represents the kind of ambition and collaboration that will drive the North East economy. By investing in our researchers and innovators, we are nurturing the pipeline of businesses, securing future employment opportunities and ensuring that the benefits of discovery are felt here in our region."  

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: “Small businesses are the beating heart of our economy and through the North East Fund we are backing the innovators and entrepreneurs with more than £100m to turn brilliant ideas into thriving companies creating thousands of new jobs as we go.  

“Our five universities have joined with us in a bold move to ensure their spinout companies can succeed for our region and that shows the rest of the country how we do business here in the North East. We’re making deals that recognise the talent on our campuses to launch new enterprises, create jobs and grow the economy.” 

The Inspire Fund was announced in the same week that Universities UK launched the Future Innovators: University Innovation Drives Growth campaign that showcases innovation within the higher education sector, with the aim of attracting inward investment, accelerating tech adoption and creating a culture of scaling up research ideas with potential.  

The Fund will invest in businesses emerging directly from university research, providing funding for high-potential start-ups in areas such as clean technologies, digital innovation, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing.  

It will also strengthen university links to private sector investors through its co-investment approach, building investor confidence, and develop new venture models that encourage longer-term investment partnerships.  

Through shared risk and collaborative funding, the Fund will also help to retain high-growth companies in the region, creating new jobs, and contributing to regional productivity.  

The North East MSA is investing via The North East Fund Limited, and the Inspire Fund will be managed by Northstar Ventures, a North East-focused venture capital company which has been embedded in the university spinout community for more than 20 years.  

It will complement existing programmes such as Northern Accelerator, which includes the five North East universities. Northern Accelerator has helped create more than 65 businesses over the last eight years, and is now focusing on strategies to support these businesses to scale up in the region.  

Last year, the Strategic Commercialisation Ecosystem North East (SCENE) secured a further £8.64m from Research England to grow the region’s ability to commercialise university research. Adding further to Northern Accelerator’s work, this programme is providing capacity building advice and support to university teams in working with the investors who engage with the Inspire Fund.  

North East Spinout Inspire Fund: already making an impact 

The North East Spinout Inspire Fund began making investments in March 2026 and has already supported three businesses, investing a total of more than £1m, which has in turn helped those companies to secure more than £5m of funding from other investors and grant providers.  

Examples include NunaBio, which spun out of Newcastle University in 2021 and is developing advanced DNA synthesis technology. The firm has secured £500,000 to support the scale-up of its proprietary platform.  

H2CHP, which builds on research led by Professor Tony Roskilly, of Durham University and formerly of Newcastle University, has secured £300,000 to develop next-generation distributed electric generators for use in data centres, ports, construction, backup power, and microgrid deployment.  

Gnosis Health, a spinout of the universities of Newcastle and Plymouth, has received £250,000 to support the development and launch of an AI-powered digital healthcare assistant MAXine, designed to transform the management of Parkinson’s disease. 

Delivering high-quality jobs across North East England  

The region’s five universities have formed Universities for North East England to attract investment and widen access to university in the region. Together, they contribute £2.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy. All have strong track records in research commercialisation.   

Durham University research has led to more than 30 active spinout companies, including in green technologies, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. Examples include Low Carbon Materials, which aims to decarbonise concrete and asphalt, and in 2022 was shortlisted for the Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize; and biosciences innovator, Magnitude.   

Newcastle University spinouts attracted more than £40m in investments last year, and there are now 40 active spinout companies, totalling 370 jobs. Examples include e-Therapeutics, which specialises in drug discovery and development, and attracted nearly £30m of investment in 2024.  

At Northumbria University, there has been a step-change in commercialisation activity contributing to an expanding pipeline of spinout opportunities. Northumbria University has a pipeline of 12 near term spinouts covering a range of sectors and technologies from green tech, space communications and advanced materials to software and agri-tech. Examples include EcoTechX which has developed a patented, ultra-efficient air-cooling technology that is 100% CFC refrigerant and compressor free, and GainsBio which is delivering soil-optimised microbials for climate-resilient, high-yield farming. 

Research commercialisation and the development of spinout creation are a key focus at the University of Sunderland. The spinout company, Sundara, has been created to bring to market the incredible work of an “inspirational” University of Sunderland scientist, the late Professor Roz Anderson, who dedicated her research to improving the treatment of patients with the rare, life-threatening genetic disease, Cystinosis. The MRC recently awarded the University £3.9 million to take the research through to clinical trial.  

Teesside University acts as an anchor organisation for the Tees Valley, supporting regional economic growth through business creation by its students, graduates and staff, with some notable successes including SockMonkey, Dink, and Stuff4Life. The University is investing in IP development and commercialisation, focused on three interdisciplinary themes: Net Zero, People and Place, and Health and Wellbeing. Teesside has also secured £9.4 million through the Tees Valley Investment Zone to support research and innovation in the Digital and Creative industries.