London, UK, 19th July 2021 / The UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Andrew Mackintosh as the new Chair of its Advisory Board. UKI2S enables and accelerates the commercial success of innovative companies from the UK’s publicly funded research base ranging from nuclear fusion to agrifoods and from engineering biology to AI and space technologies.
Dr Mackintosh has had a distinguished career in industry and investment as a former CEO of FTSE listed Oxford Instruments before later leading the creation of the Royal Society Enterprise Fund, a pioneering initiative in bringing together scientific expertise and early-stage investment. He was a Board Member of the Intellectual Property Office and a Trustee of the Design Council and is now Chair of two early-stage technology companies, Sphere Fluidics and Oxford Quantum Circuits.
He has a longstanding interest in enhancing the commercialisation and wider economic impact of UK research. Since 2015 he has been a non-executive director of Ploughshare Innovations, the technology transfer organisation for the UK Ministry of Defence, and recently led a joint Treasury, BEIS and Cabinet Office project ‘Exploiting Knowledge Assets’ to look at how the UK might unlock the hidden value across all areas of government. This led to the publication in April of this year of ‘The Mackintosh Report: Getting smarter: a strategy for knowledge & innovation assets in the public sector' and the launch of an initiative with £17m of government funding to support commercialisation of publicly owned technologies and ideas through advice and investment.
Commenting on the announcement, Karen Lewis of BBSRC said: "Andrew brings a unique combination of deep expertise, strategic insight and extensive board level experience to a key role for UKI2S for the years ahead. We look forward to working with him.”
Commenting on the announcement, Liz Kirby of STFC said: “Andrew’s career has followed a fascinating pathway that takes in many aspects of UKI2S activities, including the development of deep science in a commercial and industrial context. He really understands the journey that many of our portfolio companies are on. His experience as a fund manager and in advising government adds to this rich background and makes him an ideal person to lead the advisory board over the coming years”
Dr Mackintosh said: “As we drive our economy in new directions after Brexit and we recover from the pandemic, it is more important than ever that we exploit fully the commercial opportunities that arise from our world-leading science base. UKI2S plays a key role in providing both funds and expert advice at an early stage and I am proud to have the chance to contribute to the organisation’s development.”
The Fund is independently managed by venture capital specialist Midven. Mark White, Investment Director of the Fund added: "We are very pleased to welcome Andrew to the UKI2S Advisory Board. This is a particularly exciting time for UKI2S following UKRI’s recent announcement of a £10 million funding boost for our support of early-stage businesses arising from world-class scientific research in the UK and we look forward to working with him.”
The UKI2S board would like to express its gratitude to Dr David Lawrence who has been a highly valued member of the Fund’s Advisory Board since 2015 and has acted as Interim Chair since the retirement of Ian Taylor in December 2020.
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For further information, please contact:
UKI2S
Mark White UKI2S
T: 0121 710 1990
M: 07984 783 814
E: mark.white@midven.co.uk
PR Contact
Juliette Craggs/Richard Anderson
Sciad Communications
T: +44 (0)20 3405 7892
E: UKI2S@sciad.com
Notes to Editors
About the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S)
UKI2S is a national seed investment fund that helps the UK to build innovative businesses, leverage private investment and grow jobs. UKI2S achieves this by nurturing new businesses arising from the great science undertaken in the UK; providing the patient, long-term committed capital and strategic advice these companies need. UKI2S is usually a founder investor and often the sole investor in the very earliest stages. Over the past decade and more UKI2S has built a substantial track record with 57 portfolio companies created – with only £15m of capital from UKI2S – that between them have attracted over £500m of later stage investment and now have a combined market value of over £750m. UKI2S works closely with its partners – led by STFC, BBSRC and NERC, which are all part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and Dstl – and is aligned with the Catapults and Innovate UK to create the best environment for innovation to flourish and in turn, boost the UK’s competitiveness and productivity by commercialising key technological advances in industrial biotech, ag tech, healthcare, medicine, clean energy, materials, artificial intelligence, software and space. UKI2S is independently managed by specialist venture capital firm Midven www.midven.co.uk
For more information, please visit www.ukinnovationscienceseedfund.co.uk.
