Matt Freeman from the Future Space innovation centre in Bristol
Professor Matt Freeman is the Centre Director for Future Space, an innovation centre on the Frenchay campus of the University of West England, north of Bristol. Future Space is made up of offices and labs around the themes of advanced engineering, health & life sciences, digital, green and creative technology.
Located in the University Enterprise Zone means it is ideally placed to bring academia, researchers, innovators and business entrepreneurs together in collaboration.
Matt joined Future Space in November 2023, moving from his academic professor role at Bath Spa University in multi-platform digital media. He has first-hand knowledge of being an entrepreneur of a new business coming out from research at the university.
The question of how to bring together everything that is brilliant about universities into everything that is brilliant about the commercial world has become a passion of his. His new role at Future Space certainly fits the bill.
Executive Summary
My high-level points that I took from the interview.
- Mixture of offices, coworking desks and specialist labs with equipment
- On the university campus, which is also an enterprise zone too
- Innovation centre is the bridge from businesses to students and university departments
- A goal of increasing student employability
- Businesses can get students on a short project basis
- Centre owned by the University of West England
- Centre managed by Oxford Innovation Space
What does the word innovation mean to you?
Innovation is about collaboration. Embracing different ways of knowing, different ways of thinking, different ways of doing, looking beyond the scope of what anyone one of us might know. It’s about research and development, iteration in constant improvement and development.
Matt’s analogy is that “travelling broadens the mind” as not to stay in your own bubble.
How important is it to have a diverse range of tenants, disciplines and people in an innovation centre?
Future Space has a varied mix of tenants but there is a fairly defined gateway policy to onboarding, which is broadly high tech in nature and their website cites the sectors of advanced engineering, health & life sciences, digital, green and creative technology.
There is also a mix of businesses at different stages of their journey, starting with those with early stage funding or grants, through to much larger entities that are on the verge of “graduating” from Future Space.
How do you support the businesses and the innovation ecosystem?
There are three strands of support: space; business support; and R&D support.
There is a full-time business support team that can provide one-on-one support, and a network of business advisors. Topics they cover can range from legal and marketing, to investment and recruitment.
The business support comes from Oxford Innovation Space and the reach that relationship gives.
The research and development support comes from the university (UWE) and acts as a bridge between the two worlds of academia and business. Through this approach, businesses can have a dedicated researcher on their project. They are supported by the department and means there is access to the department’s facilities, equipment and expertise.
This approach also benefits the students as it gives them more skills in business and employability.
Future Space, who owns it, and who runs it?
Future Space started from central government support as one of four new University Enterprise Zones.
The buildings are part of the university campus and the centre is managed by Oxford Innovation Space.
What are your thoughts on bridging the gap between business and academia?
I’ve heard it many times that there is a gap between business and academia. It is said that they
- Don’t speak the same language
- Don’t have the same timescales as business who would hope to have something in 9-12 months, whilst academic work/research is in the order of 3 years and so on.
- Paul Watson from NICD mentioned that for research, there needs to be an element of risk, whilst for business there is an aim.
Matt said getting the language is right is key. Both sides are interested in the same topics and challenges and have their own aims.
Businesses need collaboration, innovation and growth by being part of Future Space. The University wants income generation, graduate outcomes and knowledge exchange.
Timings is another issue that could be mismatched, so an element of setting expectations is needed because students and academics are not available all year round. Some of the work by Future Space is to understand all of the course programmes and modules happening and when, in order to provide realistic timings and slots where the work can be done.
What happens to the intellectual property that comes from the great collaboration and research projects with the University?
It can depend on the size of the project as large funding from Innovate UK, for example, might set it all out in the contract.
It’s important to have those conversations right at the start and make it form part of the documentation.
For smaller student-based projects, it’s usually the case that the IP goes to the company. The University sees it as increasing the employability of the student as the goal and not exploitation of some small piece of research.
Do funded projects come to Future Space, with the aim of using the network of tenants to collaborate?
Not necessarily in that way, but the University might have a research project and wants to find a partner to bid with, or work with.
Are there any recent success stories that you can share?
NPK Recovery is a tenant that is turning human urine to fertliser, taking music festivals as an initial source. Not only is that service a success, but also the way the business engaged with the student population on a whole variety of projects. This has led to a paid internship and then to full employment.
https://www.uwe.ac.uk/news/npk-recovery
Who should be coming to join Future Space?
High tech, high growth businesses in the fields already given.
Business who want to join in the ethos of the innovation centre.
What events do you hold at the innovation centre?
Innovate Together, a monthly breakfast event, is held on the first Wednesday of the month.
On the third Thursday there is a beer and pizza social.
These are open to the public that can be booked via Eventbrite.
How do you collaborate with other innovation centres?
Future Space has good relationships with other similar centres in the Bristol area such as Science Create, and meet regularly for discussions.
Another blood pressure monitor shared, which can go to reception or the communal area for people to use.