About Forging Ahead
Universities in the Midlands are world-class leaders of research and innovation. But the region struggles to commercialise that research.
Forging Ahead was established on 1st May 2025 to bring together 15 Midlands universities to supercharge the Midlands’ innovation ecosystem.
Funded by Research England’s Connected Capabilities Fund and led by Loughborough University, the project will run for five years and is working across three critical areas:
- We’re working to support commercialisation teams through a peer-to peer support learning programme. We’re also building a pipeline of Commercial Champions to bring in the expertise spinouts need to grow here in the Midlands.
- We’re expanding proven training initiatives and opening up new pathways to commercialisation – initiatives that give a broader range of researchers the skills they need to grow and spinouts greater access to learning and support.
- And we’re building a more connected regional ecosystem – bringing university commercial teams, founders, investors, policymakers and innovators closer together than ever before.
These three components all feed into our broader aim – enabling more commercialisation opportunities (such as licensing), joint ventures and spinout businesses to grow here in the region, create jobs, attract investment and drive economic growth across the Midlands.
This is a major collaborative project. We’re working alongside university commercial teams from across a partnership of 15 institutions as well as our key partners: Midlands Innovation, Midlands Mindforge and the "Invest in UK R&D" campaign.
It’s time to put the Midlands firmly on the map as a destination to scale up thriving businesses fuelled by university research.
It’s time to show how Midlands universities are working together to provide more commercialisation opportunities.
It’s time to forge ahead.
Photo: University leaders at the launch of the Forging Ahead project, Aston university May 2025