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.
[Try a different background image of a workshop a bit more energetic]
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.
[LIST OF LOGOS IN THE ACADEMIC SPACE]
OUR SERVICES
We embed academic staff with the capability to turn research expertise into fundable propositions.
Knowledge Exchange Programmes
Multi-week, multi-participant structured programmes that help academics surface opportunities, shape propositions, and build ventures geared towards commercial viability and/or social value.
Designed to embed an innovative mindset, strengthen capability, and explore and follow pathways to funding and partnerships.
Technology Transfer Hacks
Multi-day, high-intensity sprints that convene academics, entrepreneurs and industry partners around systemic challenges or opportunities.
Designed to co-create validated solutions fast, mobilise ecosystems, and secure routes for pilots and scaling.
[Title for the cta]
Market Validation Projects
Build evidence and a business case to secure investment and funding.
Gather commitment and data for piloting and trial setup.
Prove the commercial go-to-market model and acquire early customer traction.
OUR WORK
We’ve worked with 15+ academic and scientific organisations to commercialise knowledge, create new ventures and accelerate go to market.
[Case study title]
[Case study title]
[Link to all the case studies in the space. I’d have an image and the title just like we have in the case study page. here are the case studies we should link to:
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/knowledge-exchange-kingston-school-of-art (This one should be updated btw with the 2025 cohort)
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/imperial-college-london-food-hack
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/john-innes-centre-food-hack
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/wellcome-genome-campus-tangible-innovation
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/icr-systematic-entrepreneurship
We lack LSE AND UCL (We should make one based on the decks on the drive)
https://www.studiozao.com/case-study/pearson-metaverse-for-education (maybe not)
Feel free to summarise the title of the case study or structure it in as many columns or design you feel suits best]
OUR PRINCIPLES
Working with us means rolling up sleeves, getting creative, and turning ideas into action - fast.
[This image needs to be turn into web page. I’d like to have the visualisation on the canvas, and the video too :) ]
Join our KE & Entreprise practitioners community.
Would you like to connect with like-minded people driving Knowledge Exchange in a closed-door roundtable environment? Register your interest using the form below, and we’ll share relevant blog posts, practical resources, and updates on upcoming events.
[The mobile version of this page still needs to be completed.
Regarding the forms, I can handle that once I’m back. if you’d like to try setting it up yourself the Squarespace form -> with Google Sheets -> Zapier -> and Mailchimp for the confirmation email, feel free to do so.
It can work similarly to car parks just that only 1 email, one-time email sent after downloading the brochure, which includes the brochure link. For the KEC request form, a simple email that includes the brochure and say’s we’ll share the KEC updates shortly]