In a first-of-its-kind partnership in the UK, King’s has teamed up with Pioneer Group, the specialist life sciences real estate and venture building company, to develop 95,000 square feet of incubator facilities. The state-of-the-art spaces will be split across two sites and will cater for university enterprises and early-stage companies in the fields of biotech and medtech, helping them to produce new products and technologies that will help improve patient treatment and care.

The partnership will revitalise two sites on the South Bank of London, which are currently empty, to provide wet and dry laboratories, office and co-working space as well as access to critical equipment. The spaces will be configured to support high tech spin-outs from an early stage.

The university’s Entrepreneurship Institute is focused on producing the next generation of spin-outs, such as C the Signs, an online tool used by GPs to identify patients at risk of cancer; and its Research Management and Innnovation Directorate has supported successful spin-out enterprises including Quell, Autolus and Pheon Therapeutics. The ecosystem locally is further enhanced by King’s Health Partners, one of only eight Academic Health Science Centres in the UK, which is focussed on improving commercialisation of research and creating an Advanced Therapies and Biomedical Sciences Hub for the benefit of patients.

Pioneer Group will lead the design, development and operation of the facilities. Once complete, they will offer flexible space to aspiring companies, as well as mentoring and support programmes, access to venture capital and the benefits of Pioneer’s UK wide ecosystem and expert network.

Glenn Crocker, Executive Director at Pioneer Group said: “King’s is recognised internationally for the impact of its research in Life Sciences and Medicine. It has produced some exceptional spin outs in the last few years in the fields of immunology and oncology amongst others. We are delighted to be working with King’s to house and help scale their exciting spin out companies. We look forward to working with the wider team at King’s to help make the journey out of academia and into commercial reality as smooth and efficient as possible.”