We provide students and graduates with enterprise opportunities and experiences. We seek to enrich student and graduate experiences by equipping them with entrepreneurial skills, whilst exploring their potential for commercialisation irrespective of study/research discipline. As a result, learners should be better positioned to work in their chosen field having gained a commercial focus.

The following programmes are open to students interested in commercialise their research. It is always advised to speak to your supervisor before completing any programme around commercialisation and be aware of any potential Intellectual Property (IP).

QUest
QUest is a game-changing customer discovery programme that allows students and recent graduates to rapidly test whether there is a market for the products or services they would like to launch. The bespoke programme will offer 12-15 lucky students and recent graduates expert training, mentoring and coaching from an expert team. This programme can open up doors to investment, networks, IP expertise and further opportunities and has been transformative in terms of helping start-ups prosper in recent years. The programme runs from June – November, applications are currently closed and will open 2024 and more information can be found here. 

Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe)
“Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research” (ICURe) is the UK's leading early stage research accelerator programme. It guides researchers through the process of refining and validating the commercial potential for some of the world's leading-edge science, technology and knowledge assets. The ICURe Engage and ICURe Discover programmes are open to Student Researcher applications. The overview of the programmes shows the details on each and upcoming coming programmes shows which programmes are open for applications and their closing dates.

Conception X
Conception X is a UK leading PhD deeptech venture programme, they support PhD students to launch research backed startups focused on long term impact. The programme runs over nine months and is designed to run alongside your PhD. It includes business and technology coaching, deeptech entrepreneurial training, events and a demo day for finalists. Cohort 7 applications open later this year to begin in March 2024.

START FOR FUTURE (SFF)
Start for Future (SFF) is an international network of entrepreneurial universities and incubators working together to transform universities to develop sustainable, innovative programmes that enable future leaders and change-makers. 

The SFF network offers programmes for students, graduates and researchers that are flexible to allow to progress from one to the next or to directly join whichever programme is most suited. There is a specific Learn for Researchers programme aimed at researchers interested in learning more about commercialisation.

If you would like more information on the support available across Queens for supporting student innovation and enterprise, please visit the InQUBate.

Any questions, contact: InQUBate@qub.ac.uk

All our academic staff and students have access to the training and development programmes run by Queen’s University Belfast, in collaboration with external partners. The programmes are fully funded by QUBIS and third parties. We work closely with talented academics, ambitious entrepreneurs, astute investors and a host of industry experts to form successful spin–off companies that combine cutting–edge research and development with market–focused products and services.

Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe)
Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research” (ICURe) is a 3-month full-time online customer discovery programme designed using lean start-up methodology and funded by Innovate UK. ICURe trains, funds, and supports teams led by university early-career researchers (ECRs) to determine whether there is a market for products or services that utilise their research, science, or technology. Up to £35,000 of funding is available to ‘get out of the lab’ and validate these commercially promising ideas in the marketplace.

The Innovation Programmes Team at Queens operate a growing number of corporate sponsored programmes and also programmes aimed at SMEs. Stimulating start-ups and Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDEs) will continue to be important, however, providing a support framework from both the private and public sector to help them survive and grow is now also crucial.

Agri-Food: EIT Food Seedbed Incubator
The pan-European EIT Food Seedbed programme is led by Queen’s and delivered in collaboration with leading EIT Food Partner Universities, corporates across Europe and Research and Innovation Organisations (Seedbed Hubs) from across Europe. Through knowledge transfer, Queen’s has provided their expertise in technology and product commercialisation to help these Hubs support entrepreneurs right across Europe to launch or progress a commercially viable business.

Working in collaboration with Technology Transfer Offices and investors across our diverse network, we are committed to driving not only economic, but also societal and environmental change through digital transformation. We aim to increase capabilities of TTOs; and help start-ups and spin-offs access funding by creating digital tools that will drive economic growth across our ecosystem

EIT HEI Initiative- Innovation Capacity Building for High Education (EntreUnity)
EntreUnity is a network of aspiring entrepreneurial European universities that concentrates on educating and training the next generation of agri-food, health and green-tech students in entrepreneurship and leadership. During this project a blue-print for a virtual TTO was developed. It focuses on early engagement with researchers and is complemented by automated workflows to alleviate administrative burden and increase capacities of TTO officers.