In 2024, the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds, and Manchester launched the Northern Triangle Talent (NTT) project, a collaborative programme focused on building a diverse and globally-centred talent community across the north of England.
In its first year, the project has successfully supported 45 emerging spinouts by connecting aspiring entrepreneurs with a cohort of experienced mentors, helping them navigate the path from concept to market. The programme has also broadened access to commercialisation activities through fellowships for University researchers facing barriers, and has provided grants to address key skills shortages in our spinout companies' founding teams.
Supported by Research England and the wider Northern Triangle community, the NTT project's work in growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem across our three universities has already resulted in key innovation achievements and impact, which will continue to strengthen the regional technology commercialisation landscape and draw in top talent to the north. To mark the project's progress, we're showcasing some of our key successes so far.
A world-class, inspirational and diverse mentor community
As part of the NTT project, we have designed and launched the Northern Triangle Mentor programme, an initiative that supports academics at the different stages of commercialisation by connecting them with experienced founders, specialists, and experts. Our organically developed mentor community is now a world-class, inspirational, and diverse network of 35 experienced mentors.
Elliot Jokl, a Research Associate at the University of Manchester, is developing a tool to detect early-stage liver disease in the community as part of the ID LIVER initiative. Thanks to support from the NTT project, Elliot received vital advice and guidance from mentor, Simon Chandler, on how to bring his product to market.
“Working with Simon has been great, and he's really helped me to formalise the idea of a business plan. I came to him with a pitch deck of what we want to do and he told us how we need to be thinking of different audiences and perspectives. In our nice academic bubble, we just don't really have a handle on this because commercialisation is a completely different world really” explains Elliot.
“He's given me lots of advice, especially with the types of things a venture capitalist would want to see. These are the figures and market research you need to figure out to really demonstrate the product that you're trying to put together. So that was really helpful to have that sort of real world perspective” adds Elliot.
The NTT project also recruits sector experts to support our researchers, innovators, and commercialisation teams. This has included appointing Steve England as an NTT Expert in Residence, who has been instrumental in accelerating commercialisation efforts at the University of Leeds. Kat Horner, Licensing and IP Manager, shared her thoughts on the impact of Steve's support:
"Steve quickly became an invaluable part of our team and has demonstrated a deep understanding of our objectives."
"One of Steve’s most significant contributions was his portfolio analysis, which enabled us to categorise projects by impact (high, mid, or low) and define actionable next steps for go/no-go decisions" explains Kat.
"We treat Steve as an extension of the Commercialisation Team and trust him to work independently with academics on some projects to help with resource allocation. His general way of working is really efficient, usually beginning with an initial discussion, moving to desktop research and a ‘first pass’ commercial analysis, and then concluding with academic meetings to plan next steps."
"Beyond individual projects, Steve is also supporting the development of our overall therapeutics strategy, including facilitating key meetings. Overall, his expertise and proactive approach are helping to shape our teams' long-term direction" adds Kat.
Richard Holliday also serves as one of our NTT experts in Residence and has supported projects in the areas of engineering, materials, and manufacturing at all three universities. Nat Crompton from the University of Leeds explains how Richard’s support has helped with spinning out his company, Switch Dye.
“I had no background or experience in commercialisation activities and Richard was basically my only support throughout that time. Talking to him made me realise how crucial it is to have mentors. His support enabled me to create a concrete business plan, financial models, pitch deck, and everything all at the right time in the right place. I'm now feeling pretty confident about a lot of the things that I'm doing” explains Nat.
Helping spinouts grow with grants and access to talent
In the past year, the NTT project has provided 17 projects with £35,000 in funding to pay towards the salaries of first hires in their management teams, enabling them to bring in experienced leaders. This funding has helped to address the frequent challenge that many early-stage ventures face with having skills gaps in their founding teams.
University of Sheffield spinout, Pixel-Flo, received an NTT management grant to appoint an experienced leader to their academic founding team. Speaking about the impact of the grant, Dr Rick Smith, co-founder of Pixel-Flo, said:
“The NTT Management Grant has allowed us to bring Simon Jones on board, who has many years of experience in the display industry, as co-founder and chair of our spinout company Pixel-Flo. This was the catalyst we needed, as Simon’s expertise was instrumental in securing our place on the Northern Gritstone accelerator programme, which proved to be a significant milestone for us” explains Rick.
"Simon's commercial background has also helped with rounding out our team, and his insights effectively complement our existing strengths as academics. This blend of skills has received some great feedback – and really, it's what investors are looking for. He's been involved in every aspect of the business, from refining operations to shaping our strategic direction, and has been invaluable in connecting us with key industry contacts” adds Rick.
We have also helped 11 project teams find high-quality candidates through our dedicated recruitment searches. By facilitating the acquisition of these key skills, we have improved our founders’ capacity to execute their commercialisation strategies and build a more robust foundation for future success.
Supporting Early Career Researchers through fellowships
Exploring the commercial viability of research can be difficult for some researchers due to time and resource limitations. This often becomes even more challenging for individuals from underrepresented groups, especially when they're managing caring responsibilities or returning from long-term leave.
To help foster a community where innovation is open to all, the NTT project has provided 11 fellowships to a diverse group of Early Career Researchers, which has enabled them to start their journey of translating research into real-world impact. Recognising the early success of these fellowships, Research England has committed to fund six more positions, extending the benefits to a wider pool of our researchers.
Dr Chester Blackburn, an Early Career Researcher from the University of Sheffield, is part of a team developing ways to imitate how natural substances like antibodies recognise molecules. Participating in the Fellowship programme allowed Chester to dedicate six months, part-time, to commercialisation, giving him the flexibility needed to attend meetings and training to support his progress.
“The fellowship gave me the time to concentrate on commercialisation – and my usual workload wouldn’t have allowed that. I’m a single Dad so I don’t have many free weekends or evenings to complete the extra work. It also relieved the pressure of my day-to-day job responsibilities which was great” explains Chester.
“I've got to the point now where I've made lots of contacts with people in the industry. It allowed me to find out what issues are out there in the real world, how we can focus our research to combat those issues and then get the people with the problems on board to help us solve them” adds Chester.
Events for collaboration, growth, and networking opportunities
To maximise the effectiveness of our mentor network, we've held three 'Innovation Sprint' events over the past year. These events gave researchers a dynamic platform to quickly pitch their ideas to our seasoned mentors in rapid-fire feedback sessions. This instant guidance helped our founders understand how to turn their research into impactful commercial ventures.
“I got a lot of advice and instant feedback at the Sprint day. It’s a bit like speed dating. The NTT Mentor Network ended up matching me up with someone who didn't attend that session – but I think they were a perfect match. Without all this advice on how to approach people in industry I wouldn't have been able to get to the end. So I think the fellowship plus the mentor network have synergised really well, and for me they complemented each other perfectly” explains Dr Chester Blackburn.
The collaborations sparked during our Sprint events are also encouraging our academic community at Sheffield to start their own spinout journey. This was the case for Dr Rob Ward, CEO of DigitalCNC, who met their main investor at an NTT mentoring event last year. He said:
“We attended the NTT mentoring network day in November 2024 at Sheffield. Until this point we were not considering starting a spinout company and firmly believed we would license the software we had developed. After the first mentor speed date talks, we quickly realised that we were a lot further along the commercialisation journey than we first thought. It was inspirational to meet so many ex-founders and successful entrepreneurs” explains Rob.
“After the event, we were very excited to be matched with our mentor David Richards, an ex-Silicon Valley CEO with 25 years' experience in scaling software companies. One week later we were in his office explaining where we were with our software. Two weeks later we demonstrated our software to his team. And then, three weeks later we were on our way to starting a spinout company!”
“Roll on to May 2025 and we have incorporated the business. I'm reducing my university activities to one day a week and have taken on the CEO role full-time. It's been a whirlwind. If it wasn't for the NTT event I'm not sure we would be anywhere close to where we are now, it was the catalyst, and we certainly wouldn't have had the confidence to give it a go” adds Rob.
In addition to the ‘Sprint’, we have successfully completed two 'Boost' cohorts – a programme that provides a group of selected academics with 12 weeks of focused, intensive mentoring from our dedicated network. This mentoring complements their existing commercialisation activities, with the aim that insights from our mentors will shape and develop their spinout or licensing potential.
Our next ‘Sprint’ day is in October and we’re looking forward to delivering a series of collaborative workshops across the three universities.
How to get involved
Reflecting on the past year, it is evident that the NTT project has made a positive impact on all of our mentees and grant recipients, helping to advance their commercialisation activities at every stage of the journey. Equally, the dedication of our mentors, who have kindly shared their time and expertise, has been invaluable to the project’s success.
We're excited to continue this momentum, focusing on the sustained progression and expansion of the programme, with the goal of further building this vital ecosystem to be even more impactful for northern spinouts.
Are you passionate about guiding the next generation of successful spinouts? We're always looking for experienced professionals to join our globally-centred mentor community. Find out how to make a difference by contacting Business Mentor Community Manager, Ken Nettleship - kenneth.nettleship@sheffield.ac.uk.