About
Our innovation ecosystem at Daresbury Laboratory, on the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus, turns deep tech ideas into impactful businesses by creating the conditions for them to thrive. We do this by providing access to world-class research facilities and expertise, a curated growth environment, and expert-led accelerator programmes.
As part of UKRI and STFC, we are embedded in the UK’s science and innovation ecosystem. Every business we support can therefore plug straight into our powerful network of scientists, technologists, universities, industry connections, and funders from across the world, helping them scale faster, smarter and with more confidence.
We are relationship-led, working in close partnership with high-potential businesses to understand their needs and reduce the risks of innovating and scaling at pace. By combining deep expertise with tailored, hands-on support, our offer empowers founders to scale their businesses with confidence. That’s why 90% of the businesses we incubate are still thriving in year five.
We offer
A curated growth environment
World class facilities and expertise
Funded programmes
Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus
Innovation Clusters
STFC has pioneered the identification and co-development of industrial R&D clusters for almost a decade. Thriving R&D clusters are built on critical mass, deep sectoral knowledge and bringing together of capabilities to establish collaborative sector communities. The truly novel and exciting thing about STFC’s cluster model lies in the ability to connect innovators not just with their sector, but between sectors, to drive new collaborative R&D projects and foster disruptive innovation.
North West Space Cluster
The North West Space Cluster was launched in 2022, in collaboration with a number of regional and national stakeholders, to take advantage of an opportunity to further contribute to the UK space economy. The cluster fosters an environment of collaboration and advancement for businesses looking to explore the benefits of applying space technologies to existing and future innovations as it actively connects those in the cluster to other clusters STFC is growing.
If you would like to know more, please contact Alan Cross, North West Space Cluster Development Manager.
North West Health Cluster
The North West Health Cluster was established in 2019 in partnership with the NHS, through the Innovation Agency, and the North West Coast Academic Health Science Network. It was the first of STFC’s regional clusters in the north, and brings together nearly 50 stakeholder organisations around the common vision of increasing intra and cross-sector connectivity to support cutting edge R&D, commercialisation and global growth of health technology solutions.
If you would like to know more about the cluster please contact Dr Phil Carvil, Head of Clusters in the North West and the lead for the North West Health Cluster.
Digital Cluster
The Digital Tech Cluster leverages the commercial, research and innovation strengths and opportunities across the North West region and beyond, connecting to national priorities and creating an environment to drive UK innovation and economic growth. The cluster drives the uptake of digital solutions to address economic, social and environmental challenges across multiple sectors and connects into STFC’s other clusters across the country.
If you would like to know more about the cluster, please contact James Bedford, Digital Tech Cluster Development Manager.
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Providing unique access to large-scale science facilities, equipment, and expertise both in the UK and internationally, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) works collaboratively with businesses to reduce the risk surrounding innovation and enable new applications of technology in exciting and disruptive ways. By co-locating businesses alongside our facilities and expertise at 3 UK locations – Daresbury, Harwell, and Edinburgh – and catalysing this with industry cluster networks, we bring together the people who can innovate and change the world for the better.
STFC, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a world-leading multidisciplinary science organisation. Working collaboratively with academia to create an environment for UK scientific research to flourish, STFC is a national resource available to support UK businesses, from spin-outs to corporates.
UK Research and Innovation
Launched in April 2018, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
UKRI brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which is responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.