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£4 million fund helps entrepreneurs exploit hi-tech research

The Iceni Fund, a £4 million fund launched to help entrepreneurs from universities and science institutes in the region will help turn research into successful business. Innovators and entrepreneurs from The University of East Anglia, the University of Essex, the John Innes Centre, the Institute of Food Research, the Sainsbury Laboratory and Plant Bioscience Ltd are able to bid for up to £250,000 from the fund to create 'spin-out' businesses.

The Iceni fund has been established following a successful bid by a regional consortium of universities and institutes to the Department of Trade and Industry's University Challenge Fund. Funds contributed by the partner institutions and the HSBC Bank will be matched by the DTI in the ratio of three to one.

Professor David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, said: "Many of our researchers have innovative ideas ripe for exploitation, but there has been a real funding gap at the crucial point of transforming ideas into reality. This new fund is not just a boost to the institutions concerned but also to the region".

Bill Huston, from the Research and Business Development Office at the University of Essex, added: 'This is an exciting initiative that will encourage researchers to be more entrepreneurial, and ensure the excellent high-tech research being undertaken in these institutions can be exploited to boost the economic development of the region. By investing venture capital in the right projects the fund will generate further funds to re-invest in new ventures".

Applications to the Iceni Fund are managed by an investment executive on which N W Brown Corporate Finance serve as fund adviser. Mills and Reeve have been appointed as legal advisers to the fund.

Hugh Parnell, Director of N W Brown, said: "We are very excited to have a fund dedicated to providing seed corn capital for the innovative teams working in the partner institutions. There is no shortage of strong ideas; our challenge is to select and support those which will become the strongest commercial propositions."

More info: For further information about the fund, see: www.icenifund.com

Posted: 1st May 2003