London's Imperial College has opened a new incubator facility that will help its academic staff commercialise their research.

Dubbed The Imperial BioIncubator, university authorities hope the centre will help develop the small companies that spin out of the institution.

Based at Imperial's South Kensington campus, the Incubator will provide office space and labs for up to 15 start-ups.

Imperial COO Martin Knight said although the college's scientists have a great deal of enthusiasm, they often don't have much commercial acumen, or business knowledge of how to take their ideas to a wider audience.

The incubator, with its 12 wet laboratories, 16 private offices and suite of meeting rooms, is designed to provide both the research resources and business support needed. Advice and mentoring will continue to be provided by Imperial Innovations, which has so far handled the spinning out of eight companies from the university.

Imperial Innovations CEO Susan Searle said she had no doubt the incubator would accelerate the development of the companies it housed. ®