Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 28
28
Accepted
Develop specific entrepreneurial support programmes for women in postgraduate and postdoctoral studies.
Recommendation
Universities are a vital source of innovative start-ups, but evidence to this inquiry suggests women are less likely to take up entrepreneurship courses and/or develop spinouts than their male peers. This is a missed opportunity for growth. The Government should work with UKRI to develop a specific programme of dedicated entrepreneurial support for women in postgraduate and postdoctoral studies. The programme should include increased opportunities for, and better signposting to, entrepreneurial fellowships, funding and pre-accelerator programmes. It should include female-focused networks for sharing experience, mentorship and guidance and seek to instil confidence in taking the step towards entrepreneurship. (Recommendation, Paragraph 112)
Government Response Summary
The government has accepted the recommendation, outlining new entrepreneurship fellowships, £25 million for doctoral training schemes, a £4.5 million round of Women in Innovation Awards, and specific women-led Discover and ICURe Explore programmes, all designed to support female entrepreneurs in postgraduate and postdoctoral studies.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
This Government is launching entrepreneurship fellowships to support commercialisation in universities in the UK, including those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, supporting UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) existing investments to fuel regional growth across the nations. UKRI will invest £4 million per year for new Enterprise Fellowships, bringing 100 top researchers into business across the UK, and up to £25 million for new entrepreneurship-focused doctoral training schemes, and will launch a new £4.5 million round of the Women in Innovation Awards. Since its inception in 2016, the Women in Innovation Programme has invested over £11 million in more than 200 women innovators and built a vibrant network of 11,000 women business leaders. Over this time, Innovate UK has seen an increase in the proportion of successful women-led applications across all competitions from 1 in 7 to 1 in 3. Success rates for applications to Innovate UK are equivalent for men and women. In April 2025, Innovate UK published a Pledge for Progress for Women in Innovation, which set out 10 commitments including on refining the Women in Innovation Awards and setting bold goals and measures for representation in the future IUK strategy. New actions include establishing a Women in Innovation Community Forum, launching an assessor recruitment campaign and opening the Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26. Innovate UK ICURe programme has introduced a women-only Discover programme in 2024, with the aim to build a pipeline of women-led innovations coming out of academic research. There are two further programmes committed for 2025/26, with plans for a women-led ICURe Explore programme, to help support women further progress their commercialisation journey and spin-out journey. ICURe will hold women-led spin out showcases to raise the visibility of the pipeline to investors. To support the economic contribution of the UK’s universities, UKRI’s investment in core quality-related block grant and Higher Education Innovation Funding will be protected in real terms over the Spending Review period, a cumulative increase of over £425 million. Welsh firms will be supported to scale and commercialise cutting-edge technologies and Welsh universities will benefit from the £4 million per year that UKRI will invest in new fellowship funding to support budding academic entrepreneurs to develop ideas for new spin-out companies based on their research.