The Digital Forge From Research to Revenue

​Britain has a research problem. Not in the production of it. The universities of the North generate world-class science, engineering and technology at a scale that most countries cannot match. The problem is what happens next.

​Too much of it stays in the lab. Too much of it reaches the point of proof and then stalls, lacking the capital, the commercial experience or the ecosystem connections to cross the gap from discovery to company. The results end up as papers, not products. As patents that expire, not businesses that last.

​Sheffield is beginning to change that. Not gradually. Rapidly.

​In the last five years, thirty-five spinout companies have launched from the University of Sheffield alone. Eighty per cent of them have chosen to stay in South Yorkshire. Together they have raised over £100 million in private investment and generate more than £84 million in combined turnover. They now account for more than half of all deep tech companies in the region and two thirds of its entire ecosystem value.

​This is not a funding story. It is a capability story. And in May, The Digital Forge is putting that capability in the room.

​DigitalCNC, co-founded by Rob Ward from the University of Sheffield and AMRC, is applying AI to precision manufacturing and won two start-up of the year awards in 2025. FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, also born out of the AMRC, has built machine monitoring technology now deployed by over 140 manufacturers across the globe. Exciting Instruments, founded by Tim Craggs, is democratising advanced single-molecule science and raised £4 million in seed funding last year. Phlux Technology has built the world's first antimony-based infrared sensors for LiDAR, raised £9 million in a Series A led by BGF, and is now serving customers across Asia, Europe and North America. BOW has secured £4 million to make robotics programming accessible at scale. Kausalyze is using causal AI to eliminate unplanned downtime in process manufacturing.

​Every one of these companies started as research. Every one of them is now a business. And every one of them did it from Sheffield.

​The evening is built around the question that matters: how do you cross the gap? What does it actually take to turn a research breakthrough into a fundable, scalable company? Where do spinout founders get it wrong, and what does getting it right look like in practice? What role do universities, investors, ecosystems and operators play in making the transition work? And what does Sheffield need to do to remain at the front of this?

​This is not an abstract panel about innovation policy. It is a practical conversation between the people who have done it, are doing it, and are backing those who will do it next.

​If you are a researcher with a commercial idea, a founder navigating the spinout process, an investor looking at where the next generation of serious deep tech companies is coming from, or a leader in industry who wants to understand how university research can become a competitive advantage, this is the evening you need to be at.