A commercial thesis
One page that states what you are building, for whom, and why now.
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Programme / One intensive day
Activation
Find out if your science can become a company, in a single day.
Activation is a one-day intensive for research teams. By the end you have an honest, evidence-based read on whether your work has commercial potential, and a concrete plan for the next ninety days.
The starting point
For scientists who suspect their work matters, but cannot be sure.
Most researchers never get an honest answer to the question that decides everything: could this become something real? The people around them are either too close to the science, or too far from the market, to say. Activation answers it quickly, before a team spends years, or a funder spends millions, finding out the hard way.
- PhD students and postdocs with a result that could travel
- Principal investigators weighing a spin-out
- Research groups exploring translation for the first time
- Technology transfer teams triaging a portfolio
What happens
The day, hour by hour.
One structured day takes a team from open question to owned plan. No filler, no generic business theory.
- 09:00FramingWhat commercial potential actually means for your science
- 10:30The opportunityMapping where your work could create real-world value
- 12:00The marketWho needs this, who pays, and how big the prize is
- 14:00EvidenceStress-testing the thesis against commercial reality
- 15:30The decisionAn honest go or no-go, and the reasoning behind it
- 16:30The planYour first ninety days, concrete and owned
What you leave with
What you leave with.
Not notes and good intentions. Four concrete artefacts you can act on the next morning.
An honest go or no-go
A clear read on viability, with the evidence and reasoning behind it.
A stakeholder map
The first customers, partners, and funders worth a conversation.
A 90-day plan
The specific next steps, each owned by a named person.
For institutions
Built to drop into a university or funding programme.
Activation maps onto the outcomes universities and funders are already accountable for, and it does so in a single day rather than a multi-month commitment.
- Runs as a self-contained day for one cohort, on your site or ours
- Flat per-cohort pricing, no per-seat negotiation, no hidden scope
- Generates evidence for knowledge-exchange and impact reporting (KEF, REF)
- Gives funders an early, low-cost signal of which projects to back
- Works standalone, or as the front door to Catalyst and Momentum
- Delivered by a working scientist, so researchers engage
We work with technology transfer offices, doctoral training centres, and research funders to run Activation at cohort scale.
Bring Activation to your institution.
Tell us about your researchers and what you are trying to unlock, and we will propose a cohort and a flat price.