From Lab to Impact: Scaling Science in the UK – Alexander Reip

About this episode

In this episode, Mel Morris CBE sits down with Alexander Reip to explore what happens between a scientific discovery and its commercialisation: why some research becomes products while other work never leaves the lab.

Drawing on his academic background and his work advising deep-tech companies, Alexander looks at why fewer UK PhD graduates become founders, the structural, cultural and commercial barriers between invention and impact, and what would need to change for the UK to turn its research strength into globally competitive companies.

Show notes

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:55 Meet Alex Reip
• 04:56 The most exciting projects
• 06:18 Why the sciences need to converge
• 09:38 Quantum and commercialising new tech
• 11:26 Outcome-based research and funding pressure
• 12:53 Falling grant success rates and the impact of AI
• 17:09 Funding imaginative, high-risk research
• 20:35 Why the UK struggles to build scale-ups
• 21:35 Building ecosystems around universities
• 23:46 Why corporates struggle to fund research
• 27:03 Bridging research and industry
• 30:11 Rate of change and the risk of lost value
• 33:13 Rethinking the PhD and entrepreneurial academics
• 35:48 Mentoring founders beyond firefighting
• 36:35 Unlocking value from brilliant scientists
• 40:48 University IP and dormant patents
• 43:46 How AI can speed up commercialisation