Academic Entrepreneurship:

Helping academics turn ideas into ventures

We partner with Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise teams to help researchers turn ideas into real-world impact, drawing on our methodology, programmes, and hands-on experience across universities.

We view academic entrepreneurship as if it were venture building.

At Studio Zao, we help institutions to see things differently.

Where others see faculty, we see entrepreneurs in the making.

Where others see research, we see blueprints for achieving commercial and social impact.

When we see knowledge exchange, we think capability-building and venture incubation.

OUR SERVICES

We embed academic staff with the capability to turn research expertise into fundable propositions.

Knowledge Exchange

We embed academic staff with the capability to turn research expertise into fundable propositions and real-world impact.

  • Multi-week, structured programmes that help academics surface opportunities, shape propositions, and build ventures geared towards commercial viability and social value.

  • Designed to translate research into tangible outcomes from startups and private sector collaborations to government funding applications across single institutions or multi-university cohorts.

Strategy Alignment

We partner with university leaders to design and align knowledge exchange strategy with institutional priorities and funding goals.

  • Support the strategic design and review of Knowledge Exchange and Higher Education Innovation Fund programmes, ensuring coherence with research and innovation objectives.

  • Help leaders build the conditions for staff to work more entrepreneurially from funding alignment to institution-wide capability building.

Student Incubators

We help universities build environments where students and staff develop the entrepreneurial skills and confidence to take ideas forward.

  • Incubator-style programmes that sit at the intersection of what students are passionate about, what they are skilled at, and what the world needs translating that into ventures with real purpose and impact.

  • Grounded in hands-on experience with leading institutions, we bring a rich network of entrepreneurs, industry practitioners, and investors from outside the university to mentor and open doors.

Explore Our Academic Entrepreneurship Services

OUR WORK

We’ve worked with 15+ academic and scientific organisations to commercialise knowledge, create new ventures and accelerate go to market.

Commercialising Food Nutrition Research with Imperial College London

See Case Study

Incubating Academic Knowledge Exchange with Kingston University

See Case Study

Empowering Scientists to Translate Research into Innovations for Wellcome Genome Campus

See Case Study

Preparing New Product Roadmaps Through A Fully Remote Workshop for the John Innes Centre

See Case Study

Creating New AI-Based MedTech Ventures to Tackle Mental Health Challenges for Health Innovation East

See Case Study

Instilling Systematic Entrepreneurship Within Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research

See Case Study

Discover How We Turn Research into Impact.

  • “Our workshops with Studio Zao were incredibly useful for supporting colleagues in developing their knowledge exchange projects. The input sessions provided a range of tools and skills for getting started and growing these projects confidently. The support from Chris and team was thought-provoking and inspiring. Huge thanks to Studio Zao!”

    — Kate Scott

    Director of Research, Business & Innovation, Kingston University

  • “I would not hesitate in recommending Studio Zao or using them again to manage and facilitate a complex innovation project. Our food research translation project was a new area for them, but they engaged and brought industrial partners together, and worked with us all the way through a complex journey involving academia, large and small business, running two successful workshops and hacks. This has given us a highly engaged network to back our bid for further Innovate UK funding.”

    — Gary Frost

    Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, Imperial College London

  • "Attending MedTech Boost, facilitated by Studio Zao, helped me make a life decision, moving from academia to business.”

    — Ahmed Selim

    PhD in Artificial Intelligence at Anglia Ruskin University

  • “Studio Zao’s expertise in the entrepreneurial process provided the structure and rigour needed for our teams to understand customer needs, develop value propositions and formulate their market validation plans. They have been instrumental in helping us design and facilitate our MedTech Challenge accelerator experiment."

    — Hiten Thakar
    Programmes Manager, MedTech SuperConnector

OUR PRINCIPLES

Working with us means rolling up sleeves, getting creative, and turning ideas into action - fast.

Structured Sprint Sessions

  • Time-boxed, high-energy sprints that force prioritisation, decisions and progress.

  • Live ideation and pitching, facilitated and coached by entrepreneurial practitioners.

  • Visual working that turns research complexity into shared clarity and actionable next steps.

Practical focus time

  • Proven canvases and frameworks grounded in market reality.

  • Hands-on coaching to develop commercial judgement, confidence and decision-making.

  • Structured work between sessions to test ideas with real users, partners and funders.

AI-accelerated delivery

  • Embedded use of LLMs to synthesise research, explore markets and surface assumptions fast.

  • Rapid visualisation and prototyping to make early ideas tangible and testable.

  • Human-in-the-loop coaching to apply AI critically and in service of better decisions.

Join our KE & Entreprise practitioners community.

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