National collaboration to scale UK climate startups
The UK will receive a serious boost in its fight against climate change with the launch of a pioneering initiative that will enable the Priestley Centre and partners to support climate startups to commercial deployment.
The Climate Scaling Collaborative will support university startups and spinouts or startups with tangible links to universities, working on solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Backed by £5m from the Research England Development Fund, the Collaborative unites leading UK universities to provide the critical support required by deep tech climate innovators in the scale-up phase. The Collaborative is comprised of the University of Leeds, Imperial, Cranfield University, the University of Derby, the University of Exeter, and the University of Nottingham.
The funding was announced by Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England on Tuesday at an event hosted by TenU celebrating a year since the launch of the government’s review of university spinouts.
A national climate innovation network
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.
Chelsea Boothroyd, Deputy Director for Innovation at the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures said: “Scaling today’s innovative climate startups is going to be vital in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Place-based climate tech clusters are critical to support and nurture these innovations.
“Leeds is well placed to provide a regional hub as part of the Climate Scaling Collaborative – combining our expertise in the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures and Nexus, the University’s innovation hub.”
Informed by the ecosystem
The Climate Scaling Collaborative will provide robust support to 60 climate startups, helping them develop from initial funding to commercial deployment. Covering multiple industries, 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-winnning startup that develops innovative, biodegradable packaging solutions to combat plastic pollution, said: “The leap from Seed to Series A is challenging, with so much to prove, from technical feasibility to traction.
“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 pain points the Collaborative plans to address are all ones which [co-founder] Rodrigo and I encountered on our journey to our $25m Series A for Notpla.”
The challenge of scale
The issues the Collaborative addresses are widely viewed as significant challenges faced by climate startups – and especially first-time founders – as they scale up and develop from a newly formed venture to a fully-fledged business.
Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Innovation at Imperial’s Grantham Institute and Director of Undaunted said: “The UK is a source of outstanding climate innovation with plenty of early-stage support, but we need to focus more on scaling up – getting these technologies from prototypes or demo deployment to real commercial success.
“The Collaborative will bring together expertise from across the UK and use it smash through the barriers faced by climate startups.”
Get involved
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.
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