The Kindling approach – uncovering your potential
Our staged, guided pathway lets researchers enter at low commitment and progress at their own pace, with each stage delivering standalone value.
Institutions can engage hundreds of researchers cost-effectively, build commercial skills across the research base, and surface stronger projects over time — instead of betting everything on a handful of applicants chosen up front.
The pathway to Impact
Discover
Introduction to translational thinking, with case studies of different impact pathways. Light touch, no commitment. Designed to reach researchers who are curious but not yet sure.
Launch
Researchers begin using tools such as audience mapping and design thinking to explore what commercialisation could look like for them. Online, fits around research schedules. No commitment to go further.
Validate
For researchers ready to seriously pursue commercialisation. Structured market validation, stakeholder engagement and business model development. First external conversations and assumption testing.
Accelerate
The last mile to market. Dedicated venture management and subject-matter experts driving toward a first customer, pilot, investment, licence or partnership.
Why it works
For researchers
Low barrier entry —
Discover reaches researchers who are curious but not committed, including those who would never apply to a traditional accelerator.
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Value at every stage —
researchers who stop at any point still leave with practical impact-building skills and a clearer view of their research's translational potential, not a rejection letter.
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Flexible and modular —
online delivery and staged progression fit around busy research schedules and caring responsibilities.
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Researchers set the pace —
stages run multiple times a year, so researchers progress when they are ready, not when a deadline requires it.
For institutions
A trained research base and a pipeline —
not a handpicked few, but hundreds of researchers with foundational impact capability and a visible pipeline of the strongest projects.
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Full pipeline visibility —
track researchers from first exposure to commercial outcome, enabling early intervention at every stage rather than a single annual snapshot.
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Stronger pipeline through self-selection —
the pathway reveals motivation over time; the most committed researchers naturally progress and de-risk at each stage.
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Modular cost —
run Discover and Launch cheaply to test the pipeline, then invest in Validate and Accelerate once there is a critical mass of strong candidates.
funder Testimonial
Designed to work with TTOs and knowledge exchange teams — not around them
The best outcomes come from integrating with TTOs and their processes as early as possible. We embed from the outset in comms, outreach and delivery; TTOs are welcome at every stage. Discover helps them raise disclosure rates and identify genuinely motivated researchers before investing intensive support time. Accelerate works directly with their processes for whichever route the researcher chooses — licence, spin-out or partnership — and offloads the venture development work most TTOs struggle to resource.
Supporting you for success
Outreach & engagement.
Recruiting busy, often sceptical researchers is the hardest part of any programme. We work directly with KE and TTO teams on comms, webinars and targeted outreach, using messaging refined across 150+ institutions.
Customisation.
Core modules are tailored to each institution’s context, researcher community, sector and translational infrastructure, with specialist input where needed.
Tracking & handover.
Progress is tracked in Kindling’s ATLAS platform, giving TTOs live visibility of engagement and enabling timely handover to institutional support — not a single end-of-programme dump.
