‘Unique’ Future Worlds start-up incubator celebrated with Vice-Chancellor’s honour

A pioneering start-up incubator that has supported dozens of University entrepreneurs in its first year has been commended with one of the University of Southampton’s highest accolades.

Future Worlds, an entrepreneurial ecosystem founded within the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, was recognised with a Vice-Chancellor’s Team Award on Friday 22 July.

The award, which highlights the platform as an ambassador of the University’s key principle of Quality, comes just 10 months after Future Worlds was launched by Principal Enterprise Fellow Dr Reuben Wilcock.

Future Worlds is helping turn staff and students’ commercial opportunities into market-ready solutions for a range of industries by providing exclusive access to events, support, and mentors with a global network of contacts on Futureworlds.com. Mentors on the scheme include Chris Broad, Director of Apple Europe; Geoff Baker, Vice President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; and Penny Endersby, a Head of Division at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

Director Dr Wilcock said: “It’s a great honour for the team to be recognised so soon in our journey as we help our aspiring entrepreneurs change the world with their ideas. Our growing team strives for quality in all we do and it’s fantastic for this to be recognised through the Vice-Chancellor’s award.

“Since launching 10 months ago Future Worlds has helped over 35 entrepreneurs, startups and spinouts, some of whom have been accepted into London's top accelerator programmes, have gone on to raise over £1.3 million in funding and are now creating new jobs in the UK.”

Dr Wilcock collected the award from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Christopher Snowden in the University’s Hartley Suite alongside Future Worlds co-founder Joyce Lewis and team members Alex Dunlop and Jon Nurse.

In presenting the award, Professor Mark Spearing, Pro Vice Chancellor International, said: “The Future Worlds team have delivered quality through key external partnerships to develop a unique fertile environment for entrepreneurship and enterprise beyond the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering to also support researchers in Medicine, Engineering & the Environment and Business, Law & Art, to create wider University impact.”

In January 2016, Future Worlds made Southampton the first UK university to ever showcase its technologies at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. The initiative recently announced that it would be returning to the international trade show this January with a larger stand and team.

The start-up incubator is now an associate member of Innovate UK’s Digital Catapult Centre, and has been credited in an article on Forbes.com as helping change the picture of entrepreneurship in UK universities.