A New Vision for the Commercialisation of Advanced Connectivity Technologies

Recent advances in connectivity technologies (ACT), artificial intelligence and quantum technologies present great opportunities and challenges.

To seize the opportunities, the nation must transform how it commercialises its world-leading university research and development (R&D). Moreover, doing so is critical to closing the UK’s persistent productivity and digital economy gaps and building an ecosystem capable of creating its own “big tech” companies.

The challenge is clear: recent data shows that the UK’s productivity performance has fallen below its post-2008 trend. This highlights the need for new engines of economic growth,  including diversifying the economy into new high growth sectors.

In the UK government’s recently launched Modern Industrial Strategy, ACT was identified as a ‘frontier technology’ and a high potential growth area. Part of their mission is to build on the UK’s research base to support greater domestic commercialisation of ACT.

The UK’s Federated Telecoms Hubs (FTH) was created to address this mission, acting as a catalyst for innovation, by accelerating fundamental research into real world impact, with a strong focus on market ready solutions. FTH offers investors a gateway into a deep, high-impact research ecosystem at the forefront of advanced connectivity technologies. Our focus spans transformative areas illustrated below.

Category	Technologies
Intelligent Networks	AI for networks, semantic comms, orchestration, explainable AI, integrated sensing and communications
Advanced Wireless & Optical	RIS, OWC, fibre comms, ISAC, channel modelling
Future-Ready Infrastructure	NTN, quantum-classical convergence, private 5G
Secure & Sustainable Systems	Energy-efficient design, physical-layer security, spectrum datasets

A Different Approach to Commercialisation

 FTH takes a proactive and integrated methodology, which includes:

• Seamless Investor Integration: FTH integrates investors and venture capitalists directly into the university R&D innovation process. This better aligns an expanse of cutting-edge communications research with market needs to produce more robust, deep-tech university spinouts.
• Removing Barriers: FTH actively overcomes common deterrents for investors and entrepreneurs. It achieves this by working to pool intellectual property from multiple universities to make them more accessible, e.g. to startups, and by proposing standardised templates for spinning out startups from universities.
• Expert-Led Identification: utilising 50 years of deep advanced connectivity tech domain expertise to identify commercialisation opportunities of IP-rich R&D.

A Powerful, Collaborative Network

FTH currently comprises a growing network of 27 leading UK universities. The initiative is structured into thematic R&D areas led by the University of Cambridge, the University of Bristol, Imperial, and the University of Oxford.

By breaking down silos and connecting the UK’s greatest assets – its research and talent – FTH aims to build new economy supply chains and jobs, ultimately helping the UK realise its full potential as a global leader in ACT and economies of tomorrow.

Join our investor and partner network to gain early access to emerging commercial opportunities.