For university innovation offices and TTOs
We embed commercially minded researchers inside your labs. They publish with your PIs, explore spin-out potential on your IP, and leave you with a pipeline of entrepreneurial talent. You cover half a part-time salary. We handle everything else.
What you get
The minimum outcome is still a win. The maximum is a spin-out, a publication, and a PI who wants to do it again. Either way, you have gained a commercially literate researcher at half the cost.
The partnership
Four steps from first conversation to a fellow in your lab. We handle the recruiting, training, and programme management. You provide lab access and a simple part-time researcher contract.
No heavy contracts upfront. A short LOI confirming you will host one to three fellows and provide lab access via your innovation office or TTO. Revocable, experimental, and exclusive to nobody.
We agree on a standard, fair IP template. The fellow keeps 80 to 90 percent. University and Institute share 10 to 20 percent. Based on established models at ETH Zurich, Chalmers, and Oxford.
We recruit, vet, and shortlist. Your innovation office and host PI make the final selection. The fellow gets a part-time scientific contract (~€30K) directly from you. We cover the other half plus every programme cost.
Three months of scouting across your IP portfolio. Nine months embedded in the chosen lab. Fellow publishes with the PI, builds a prototype, and explores spin-out potential. You get output regardless of exit path.
Inside your lab
A concrete view of the year, so your PI and TTO know what to expect from the person walking through their door.
The fellow is housed under your innovation office for the first three months. They meet PIs across departments, read dormant filings, and build a commercial map of your IP.
By month three you have a written commercial map of your IP portfolio, whether or not the fellow commits to a specific lab.
Once embedded in a lab, the fellow works alongside the PI on a specific project. They co-author at least one paper. Real academic output, not just a business plan.
Publications are co-designed with the PI. Your university owns the IP, subject to the agreed framework, regardless of the fellow's exit path.
In parallel, the fellow prototypes, validates with customers, and prepares a spin-out case. Commercial mentorship and investor introductions come from the Institute, not from you.
If it doesn't spin out, your TTO still gets a detailed commercial assessment of the IP that went through the process.
Why this is worth doing
The fellowship helps the university tell a better story to faculty, to grant agencies, and to the next generation of PhD students.
Every cohort measurably improves your spin-out rate and your publication-to-company ratio. Both matter for grant applications and for ranking exercises.
Fellows who convert to PhDs stay in your system with a commercial lens already built. Over time, this changes the culture inside the labs.
Spin-outs generate case studies that directly help your industry office. Same research, two channels: one academic, one commercial.
When spin-outs succeed, the university keeps a meaningful equity share. This is real economic alignment, not a goodwill letter.
A visible sign that your TTO is not a bottleneck. It says: we help our labs turn research into companies, and we do it on fair terms.
Fellows rotate short stays between partner universities. Your labs get exposure. Your PIs build new collaborations, at no logistical cost to you.
Ready?
We are onboarding one to three university partners for the 2026 to 2027 pilot cohort. Minimal bureaucracy. Pre-drafted IP framework. Three fellows, ninety days of scouting, the rest optional.
In formation, 2026. Talking with TU Berlin, TransferAllianz, and SPRIND. First pilot cohort planned for Q4 2026.