Foundation Industries get helping hand

Foundation Industries Ventures (FIVe) is a business incubator and accelerator for innovation and decarbonisation within the foundation industries.

FIVe has set itself up in the Materials Processing Institute.

It is hoped that FIVe will support start-ups and spin-outs seeking to develop new and innovative materials, processes and technologies, by providing flexible office, laboratory and event space, finance support, intellectual property, legal, human resources, and health and safety training.

Some academics are hopeful FIVe will bring about real change.

Dr Lucy Smith, the Materials Processing Institute’s Head of Transformation, says, ‘FIVe is our answer to unblocking some of the challenges faced by start-ups and spin-outs by derisking their journey and helping them prove their ideas from lab-scale development to commercialisation’.

The foundation industries contain cement, metals, chemicals, ceramics, and glass fields.