Funding could open up £2.5bn market for spin-out
STRUCTUREVISION, a University of Leeds spin-out company, has been awarded a £350,000 grant to help develop software to aid a nuclear clean-up programme.
The grant, from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), will fund a new digital modelling tool which will be able to analyse the best way of cutting up and disposing of nuclear waste during decommissioning.
StructureVision, based at Leeds Innovation Centre, which received early stage funding from IP Group and the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, provides software to enhance safety and provide efficiency benefits to the nuclear waste management sector.
It estimates that the nucelar decommissing market is worth around £2.5bn a year and it is targetting a market of £100m over the next decade for its new product.
The group, which has recently signed a key partnership agreement with British Nuclear Group Project Services, has appointed the former chief executive of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) Neville Chamberlain, as its chairman.
Bob Ward, chief executive of StructureVision, said: “We are delighted to have received the exceptional research and development grant from the Northwest Development Agency. This extra funding is crucial to our NuPlant project development plan and allows us to deliver a best in class product for the nuclear industry within the next two years.”
Mark Hughes, executive director for enterprise and skills at the NWDA, said: “The NWDA manages and funds a number of business finance solutions designed to help businesses start up and grow. The grants are aimed at encouraging businesses to carry out those R&D projects that they would not necessarily undertake without the grant and assist them in levering in finance from the private sector.”
In November 2006, StructureVision secured the investment of £300,000 equity financing from both IP Group, the intellectual property commercialisation company, and the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, which provides funding for spin-out companies from the universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield.
The company was founded in 2003 by Dr Xiaodong Jia and Professor Richard Williams of the institute of particle science and engineering at Leeds University.
It is jointly owned by Leeds University, IP Group subsidiary Techtran Group and the White Rose consortium.
