From showcasing new commercial opportunities and bringing founders together with the University community, to conversations around investment, scaling and the journey from research to market, the Innovation Factory was at the heart of The University of Manchester’s first Innovation Festival.

Taking place from 5 to 9 October, Innovation Festival 2026 brought together researchers, students, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors and colleagues from across the University for a week of events celebrating Manchester’s growing innovation ecosystem.

For the Innovation Factory, it was an opportunity to showcase the breadth of commercial opportunities emerging from University research, create new connections for our founders and projects and take part in conversations about what Manchester needs to build and grow the next generation of innovative companies.

Manchester to Market

Wednesday saw one of the Innovation Factory’s biggest events of the week, with Manchester to Market taking over the ground floor of University Place.

The showcase brought together founders, researchers, students, colleagues and members of the wider innovation community, giving visitors the opportunity to meet the people behind some of the companies and commercialisation projects emerging from across The University of Manchester.

Companies and projects taking part included (in alphabetical order):

  • Chromition
  • Curapel
  • FLAG-Me SAFE
  • GiFT
  • Hollowgraf
  • Imperagen
  • Imprinted Diagnostics
  • KOKU Health
  • Molymem
  • Music in Mind
  • Sentira
  • Tiny Human Dramas
  • Wull Technologies

The showcase reflected the vast variety of activity being supported through the Innovation Factory, from new healthcare technologies and advanced materials to AI, engineering and research-led creative ventures. The wider University coverage of the day highlighted projects ranging from Imperagen’s AI-led approach to enzyme engineering and GiFT’s work in medical technology to Tiny Human Dramas, which is developing research-led theatre from work in social anthropology.

Manchester to Market also welcomed Dr Eli Harari, University alumnus and co-founder of SanDisk, who spent time meeting founders and CEOs and hearing more about the companies being built from Manchester research. His visit provided another opportunity for early-stage teams to share their ambitions with an entrepreneur who has first-hand experience of building technology on a global scale.

A short walk away, the Innovation Factory was also represented at the Powerhouse of Innovation Showcase in Whitworth Hall, which brought together around 25 University teams, programmes and partners involved in supporting innovation and commercialisation. Together, the two events demonstrated both the strength of the opportunities emerging from Manchester research and the wider network of expertise available to help them develop.

 

Taking the conversation across the Festival

Innovation Factory colleagues, founders and portfolio companies were involved in various other activities throughout the week.

At the Festival launch on Monday, Dr Alexander Stokes from Imprinted Diagnostics joined Professor Sam Butterworth of Apini Therapeutics and Professor Alan Dickson for a session exploring how ideas can progress towards commercial opportunities and wider impact.

On Tuesday, Natalie Mera-Pirttijarvi from the Innovation Factory joined a panel at From Discovery to Impact: How Graphene is Transforming Innovation at the National Graphene Institute. The discussion explored some of the practical realities of taking research towards market, including intellectual property, funding, partnerships and commercialisation.

Manchester spinout founders were also represented at a Northern Gritstone session looking at the role that experienced leadership and talent can play in building ambitious university spinouts. Professor Sam Butterworth, Founder and CSO of Apini Therapeutics joined the discussion alongside founders and leaders from across the Northern innovation ecosystem.

Investment, scale-up and Manchester companies

Thursday brought a strong focus on investment and company growth.

Innovation Factory CEO Dr Catherine Headley took part in the Cambridge x Manchester Investor Summit at Citylabs, joining a discussion with representatives from Innovate UK, the ScaleUp Institute and Manchester Angels on growth capital and how the UK supports companies as they scale.

The event also put emerging companies directly in front of investors, with Hollowgraf, Imperagen, SmartIR and SpinOr among the Manchester ventures pitching alongside companies from Cambridge.

The week provided a timely opportunity to reflect on what Manchester is building. Looking towards the University’s 2035 ambitions, Catherine said the measure of success would be being able to say that “through the things we’ve supported, we have improved quality of lives, through environmental and social impact”.

Founder Playbook goes LIVE

Thursday evening saw the Innovation Factory take over Manchester Museum for a special Founder Playbook LIVE, bringing our podcast off the air and in front of a live audience for the first time as part of the Festival.

Hosted by the Innovation Factory’s Director of Portfolio, Nic Gowland, the event brought together Professor James Winterburn, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Holiferm, and Charles Dimmler, CEO of Holiferm, for a conversation about the realities of creating, building and scaling a university spinout.

The discussion explored Holiferm’s journey from Manchester research through company formation, investment, manufacturing and commercial growth, as well as the challenges, decisions and partnerships that have shaped the business along the way.

For the Innovation Factory, Founder Playbook LIVE provided a fitting end to a week that was ultimately about connecting people at different stages of the same journey, from researchers beginning to explore commercialisation to founders and CEOs building companies at scale.

A strong week for Manchester commercialisation

Innovation Festival also coincided with another important marker for Manchester’s commercialisation activity, with the latest Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF6) confirming that The University of Manchester has maintained the highest possible rating for IP and commercialisation.

The result recognises continued strength in translating University research and intellectual property into technologies, spinout companies and commercial opportunities, and followed a year in which 11 new spinouts were launched and more than £65 million of external investment was secured across the Innovation Factory portfolio.

Across the week, the Festival provided a snapshot of what sits behind those results. Researchers exploring new ideas, commercialisation specialists helping to develop them, founders sharing what they have learned, investors looking for the next opportunity and companies at different stages of growth were brought together across the University.

For the Innovation Factory, it was also a chance to catch up with many of the founders and teams we work with, introduce their work to new audiences and celebrate the progress being made across Manchester’s growing spinout portfolio and pipeline.

Thank you to everyone who joined us throughout Innovation Festival 2026, and particularly to the founders, researchers, speakers and colleagues who gave their time to share their work and experiences.

Photos courtesy of Jill Jennings and Edward Turck