Exeter joins £5-million collaboration to scale UK climate startups

This new initiative involving the University of Exeter is backed by £5-million from the Research England Development Fund and will enable its partners to work on solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation by supporting climate science startups to commercial deployment.

The UK has received a serious boost in its fight against climate change with the launch of the Climate Scaling Collaborative.

This new initiative involving the University of Exeter is backed by £5-million from the Research England Development Fund and will enable its partners to work on solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation by supporting climate science startups to commercial deployment.

Led by Imperial, the Collaborative unites Exeter, Cranfield University, the University of Derby, the University of Leeds, and the University of Nottingham to provide the critical support required by deep tech climate innovators in the scale-up phase.

This builds on the innovation leadership developed by Exeter’s Green Futures Solutions, a business support initiative that helps companies reach net zero, make smarter use of natural resources, and seize opportunities in the growing green economy.

Jim Williams, Head of Commercialisation at Exeter Innovation who are leading the university’s involvement, said: “As the UK’s climate innovation ecosystem continues to mature, more support is needed to ensure our spinouts and startups are well placed to scale their impact. This project seeks to address the real barriers to securing significant post-Seed investment that will enable them to deploy at pace, at scale and in a responsible way that builds confidence with investors, communities and policy makers. We’re excited at Exeter to provide our wealth of interdisciplinary, climate related research and climate solution development expertise to support this timely initiative.”

The funding was announced by Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England at an event hosted by TenU celebrating a year since the launch of the government’s review of university spinouts.

Professor Emma Bland, Associate Professor of Practice Environment, Health and Wellbeing at the University of Exeter: “This groundbreaking initiative allows us to integrate the climate and health agenda into the innovation space, which is predominantly focused on mitigation solutions. By using health as a lens on climate change, we can foster the transdisciplinary collaboration essential for equitable adaptation. Additionally, we can connect these innovations to our newly established UKRI funded Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions, tackling the health impacts of climate change.”

The Climate Scaling Collaborative will provide robust support to 60 climate startups, helping them develop from initial funding to commercial deployment. Covering multiple industry verticals, these businesses will be sourced from across the UK university ecosystem with the support of a wide network of partner organisations.

To ensure the Collaborative addressed the most urgent pain points in scaling climate technologies, dozens of stakeholders from the founder and investor ecosystem were consulted during development of the Collaborative.

Pierre Paslier, co-founder of Notpla, an Earthshot-winning startup that develops innovative, biodegradable packaging solutions to combat plastic pollution, said: “It is exciting to see this incredible network forming, utilising deep expertise from across the UK to support startups as they prepare to scale, which is so important for genuinely addressing the climate crisis.”

The Collaborative will create a regional hub at each partner university, enhancing and developing business support and technical ecosystems focused on climate startups. These hubs will build local relationships and specific expertise on potential clients, partners or collaborators, turbocharging the journey from startup to scale-up. Through the Collaborative, these local hubs will form an interlinked network across the UK.

The Climate Scaling Collaborative will get underway in April 2025. A number of Regional Development Managers roles will be recruited for by the university partners.