Building impact-ready researchers — from early career skill-building to advancing live projects
Impactful research is both found and built. Kindling supports researchers throughout this journey. Equipping early-career academics with the necessary skills, accelerating advanced projects toward real-world impact, and empowering the professional teams who enable their success.
Delivered in person, online and hybrid.
The Kindling approach
Entrepreneurial Skills to Foster Ideas & Sustained Research Impact
Our skill development programmes have been delivered across SHAPE, Life Sciences, Deep Tech, Agriculture and Physical Sciences, covering every commercialisation pathway: from IP licensing and in-house ventures to VC-backed spinouts, social enterprises and everything in between.
Why our training drives impact
Reaches researchers early
Researchers build entrepreneurial skill before they have a project — widening the pool from which impact and pipeline later emerge.
Outcome at every stage
Each session leaves participants with something usable — a pathway, a validated assumption, a fundable pilot — not just awareness.
Interactive, applied to their own work
Participants apply every tool to their own research and leave able to act, which is what makes the learning stick.
I feel more confident at what I need to do next, I’ve already had a couple of conversations around paid collaboration resources, and I feel enthusiastic with what this will all bring.
Academic, University of Exeter
Two programmes, two points on the journey
The Entrepreneurial Researcher Programme
Equipping researchers with the skills to thrive in an impact-oriented research landscape.
Ideas to Impact → Customer-Led Pilot → Market Validation
Supporting researchers who already have impact projects to develop them for their audience.
Who it's for
Doctoral researchers, DTP cohorts and early-career researchers — bought by department heads, doctoral training partnerships, ECR networks and TTOs who want their researcher base prepared to pursue impact early.
What it is?
A structured programme that uses entrepreneurial skills to help researchers flourish and build the impact pathway best suited to their research.
Who it's for
Researchers with a specific project they want to advance
What it is?
Three modular products that can be taken individually or in sequence as a project matures
Seven modules, taken as a full programme or individually
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Impact & Academic Leadership
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Policy Engagement
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Communication & thought leadership
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Partnership Development
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Commercialisation pathways
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Pitch Training
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Project management
What participants get per stage
Ideas to Impact — for researchers at the start of their journey.
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A clear map of the impact pathways available — and which is the right fit. Practical tools to generate and develop the idea beyond the lab.
A concrete next step on the impact journey
Customer-Led Pilot Design — for researchers ready to test their idea.
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- pilot design ready to submit for IAA or other small-grant funding
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- Clear negotiation strategy for engaging non-academic partners
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- Roadmap for building partnerships beyond the initial pilot
Speeding Up Market Validation — for researchers who need to move faster.
- Structured framework for gathering customer and stakeholder insights quickly
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- Practical tools to test core assumptions before committing to a pathway
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- Clear validation plan ready to execute — and the confidence to run it
I am much more adept at reading the market in general and thinking about customer acquisition, and how this plays into communications and marketing.
Academic, ARC Programme
Bespoke packages
Most engagements start from one of the two programmes and are then tailored to your context, discipline and pipeline. We also build fully bespoke programmes — combining or extending individual modules to match a specific brief, including training for the KE and TTO professionals who enable commercialisation themselves.
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Modules we draw on include IP commercialisation, entrepreneurial mindset, negotiation, partner engagement, pilot design, communicating your research and its impact, pitching, and impact measurement — plus more, tailored to your needs.