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 Programmes
Multi-week, 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 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.
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.
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
Incubating Academic Knowledge Exchange with Kingston University
Empowering Scientists to Translate Research into Innovations for Wellcome Genome Campus
Preparing New Product Roadmaps Through A Fully Remote Workshop for the John Innes Centre
Creating New AI-Based MedTech Ventures to Tackle Mental Health Challenges for Health Innovation East
Instilling Systematic Entrepreneurship Within Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research
Discover How We Turn Research into Impact.
OUR PRINCIPLES
Working with us means rolling up sleeves, getting creative, and turning ideas into action - fast.
High energy hacks
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.
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.