Connecting the Academic World to Industrial Partners

The aim of this ongoing project is simple…

Connect global academics and their ideas with industrial partners to drag breakthrough concepts out of academic papers and into real-world scenarios. Helping deliver the solutions needed to tackle the ongoing worldwide crises of food security, climate change and resource depletion to name a few. My experiences in academia, stemming from my BEng, MSc and MScR in addition to my time working at the University of Bath and through conversations with graduate engineers in the defence industry has led me to believe that the talent of individuals to create ground breaking ideas is limitless, but the inability for individuals to move these projects from theories, models or mere research concepts has led to a drought of real-world benefits.

Two examples have cemented my believe in the need for a communal space for industry and academics to connect in order to bridge this gap from research to deliverable technology they are:

1. While conducting my own research at the University of Bath on energy storage as a frequency mitigation solution for national grids, I was invited to present my work at the Sustainability Showcase in 2025. Surrounded by amazing researchers and PhD students, I had the pleasure of reading poster after poster of breakthrough ideas on topics such as: embodied carbon construction, wireless vehicles, decarbonisation solutions and recyclable packaging created from seaweed. Additionally an entire section was dedicated to low-carbon transport solutions, however, when I requested a brochure for a summary of the projects I was told that no such booklet was available. Neither was there an online presence for any of these projects, this inability for these researchers to showcase their projects or progress outside of this brief poster moment made me despair. How can we as a society allow these ideas to lay untouched within the walls of academic institutions without giving their creators the chance to showcase their work to industries who may be interested in developing the technology further. From this experience I realised that for many researchers, their work simply becomes a stepping stone for companies during the hiring process. Countless breakthrough projects were left behind because no avenue was available for researchers to translate their work into actual businesses existed.

2. Secondly, while working in the defence industry many of my colleagues had come from engineering backgrounds. During one of our lunch breaks we were discussing our individual projects, some explained how their carbon capture solutions differed from industry standards, citing the benefits, while others discussed their economic models for long-term decarbonisation investment strategies. I was shocked that these bright engineers, who were being poorly utilised by industry, had all once generated fantastic ideas that could have easily morphed into businesses or projects capable of helping communities or nations tackle ongoing crises. This moment cemented for me my believe, that without access to a connection platform where creative engineers or scientists can share their ideas with possible industrial partners, all of these ideas were destined to be forgotten. How many breakthroughs are left in the files of engineers university folders? How can we elevate these individuals to start new businesses, develop new technologies and spearhead a revolution in technology?