Universities for North East England and the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness have officially launched a £22.5m fund to support spinout businesses in the region.
The North East Spinout Inspire Fund will particularly support early-stage spinout businesses. This is where risk is higher and funding is often harder to secure from private sector investors alone. The North East MSA and the universities have identified this as a critical gap in the current set-up. In its first five years, the Inspire Fund will support at least 30 spinout firms.
The North East Spinout Inspire Fund is supported by £10m investment from the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA) and a total of £12.5m from Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside universities. It will focus on transforming cutting-edge research into high-growth new businesses based in North East England.
The Fund is part of the North East MSA £100m regional investment framework administered by The North East Fund. It sits alongside the North East Accelerate and North East Elevate funds. Together these funds aim to strengthen access to early-stage finance for start-up, scale-up and growing companies. It will tackle long-standing market failures that have hampered innovation-led growth in the region.
North East Mayor Kim McGuiness:
“Small businesses are the beating heart of our economy and through the North East Fund we are backing the innovators and entrepreneurs with more than £100m to turn brilliant ideas into thriving companies creating thousands of new jobs as we go.
“Our five universities have joined with us in a bold move to ensure their spinout companies can succeed for our region and that shows the rest of the country how we do business here in the North East. We’re making deals that recognise the talent on our campuses to launch new enterprises, create jobs and grow the economy.”
Professor Andy Long, Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University and Chair of Universities for North East England:
“Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside universities are hotbeds of research that transforms lives. This Fund will help our researchers go further and faster in converting their ideas into successful businesses, creating jobs and prosperity in our region.
“We welcome the North East MSA’s significant investment in this Fund and all five members of UNEE are determined to support this agenda. We are confident this investment will attract high-quality researchers and investors to the region, with the investment leading to clear benefits for the people of our region, the local economy, and the national economy.”
John McCabe, Chief Executive at the North East Chamber of Commerce:
“The North East Spinout Inspire Fund shows the region’s five universities, local government and businesses are ready to work together to create innovation-led growth, turning cutting-edge research into new business.
“We believe in the power of place-based approaches and innovation. Solutions designed with, for and by the North East – to unlock our area’s full potential, and this is a strong signal that the region is ready to deliver.
“The fund will drive investment and create real opportunities in the North East, achieving maximum impact for our communities and delivering true inclusive economic growth.”
Launch event at Northumbria University
The Fund, managed by Northstar Ventures, was launched at an event yesterday (Thursday 11 June), hosted by Northumbria University. The event featured North-East-raised business pioneer and former Group Chief Executive of Legal and General Sir Nigel Wilson.
The Inspire Fund is already catching the attention of policy makers and influencers. It was cited in a UKRI independent review, led by Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer at Cancer Research UK. The review examined how the UK can better support spinout and start-up businesses to thrive and grow.
The Fund was announced in the same week Universities UK launched the Future Innovators: University Innovation Drives Growth campaign. The campaign showcases innovation in the higher education sector. It aims to attract inward investment, accelerating tech adoption and creating a culture of scaling up research ideas with potential.
Already making an impact
The Inspire Fund began making investments in March 2026, investing a total of over £1m in three companies. That investment helped those companies secure more than £5m of funding from other investors and grant providers.
Examples include NunaBio, which spun out of Newcastle University in 2021 and is developing advanced DNA synthesis technology. The firm has secured £500,000 to support the scale-up of its proprietary platform.
H2CHP, builds on research led by Professor Tony Roskilly, of Durham University and formerly of Newcastle University. The company secured £300,000 to develop next-generation distributed electric generators for use in data centres, ports, construction, backup power, and microgrid deployment.
Gnosis Health is a spinout of the universities of Newcastle and Plymouth. They received £250,000 to support development and launch of technology to transform the management of Parkinson’s disease.
Delivering high-quality jobs across North East England
Universities for North East England formed to attract investment and widen access to university in the region. Together, they contribute £2.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy. All have strong track records in research commercialisation.
