Innovate UK co-host first day of the IAN 2025 Conference
Bringing together stakeholders from across the incubator and accelerator ecosystem
On Thursday, 20 March Innovate UK co-hosted the first day of the Centre for Entrepreneurs 8th annual Incubator and Accelerator Network (IAN) conference at Aston University. This was our first in-person community event, after launching the call-to-action last September, to bring together incubators and accelerators as a community from across the UK to shape the future of the UK’s start-up ecosystem.
Start-up connect brings to together Innovate UK’s products and services as well as sign posting other support within the wider ecosystem, supporting early stage technology businesses to have visibility of the support available.
IAN 2025 The Future – building a sustainable ecosystem
With over 70 highly engaged delegates in attendance, the day included many lively and inspiring sessions. The focus for the day was on how to build an inclusive UK community of incubators and accelerators, strengthening the sector’s ability to support innovative early-stage startups and drive progress for the innovation ecosystem.
Attendees participated keenly in the unique networking opportunities, as well as the thought-provoking panel discussions. Sessions included:
- Morning Panel: Navigation and transparency of the incubator and accelerator ecosystem
Sanghamitra Karra – Morgan Stanley Inclusive Lab
Laura Ciccolini – UCL
Ayokunmi Ajetunmobi – Pioneer Group
Paula Whitehouse – Aston University
Eric Appleton – Energy Systems CatapultPanellists shared insights on-ways to address fragmentation and lack of visibility in the ecosystem. Key insights included the need for start-ups to understand their needs are as well as incubators and accelerators knowing their value proposition within the context of the innovation ecosystem.
- Roundtable Discussions
The morning panel was followed by lively roundtable discussions on the mechanisms and tools to enable a more visible and transparent system. There was honest feedback from participants and a desire to come together to work on challenges.
- Afternoon Panel: Business models and longevity for incubators and accelerators
Aline Charpentier – Bruntwood Science Park
Chantelle Young – Technation
Laura Bennett – RAEng
Colin Dart – University of Exeter
Amy Farrington – STFCOur afternoon panellists shared their business models; what is working, what is not, and what does a sustainable model look like. Different perspectives from the private and publicly funded programmes were shared and one of the key insights was appreciation of an organisation’s value proposition.
- Group Workshop: Looking ahead; The key trends, priorities and opportunities for incubators and accelerators
Our delegates looked ahead at the key trends, priorities and growth opportunities with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and a lively debate ensued on how AI can support organisations in becoming more efficient and well as the need for better sign positing across the ecosystem and ways this could be achieved.
Next Steps
We will be summarising the key insights in the coming weeks with our community members. We are now looking at the next steps and thinking about how we as community start to address challenges faced by incubators and accelerators in supporting the start-up ecosystem.
If you would like to stay informed about future insights and events, keep an eye on the Start-up Connect webpage and register your interest to join our community.
Co-creating an inclusive UK community of incubators and accelerators
Are you interested in helping solve challenges facing UK start-ups, as well as those facing incubators and accelerators? We welcome you to join the growing Start-up Connect community, that includes individuals and organisations from across the UK.
Learn more about Start-up Connect and how you can become part of this new community to support innovative start-ups across the UK.