The dragons were sitting in an elegant den at the Royal Society in London, Britain’s national academy of sciences. Overlooked by portraits of great 18th-century scientists, the judges heard four powerful pitches for science-based businesses.
These included an image analysis system to assess the facial mobility of people who are suffering from paralysing diseases or have had surgery on the face; a “text mining” tool to extract chemical information from the world’s scientific literature; an educational venture, called Big Bang in a Box, to sell images of high-energy particle collisions at Cern’s new atom smasher; and a lightweight material stronger than steel, for use in body armour and the aerospace industry.
The Dragons’ Den competition – modelled on the popular venture capitalist television format – was the climax of a Business of Science programme put on by Imperial College Business School for the Royal Society’s University Research Fellows. These are some of Europe’s brightest scientists, typically in their 30s, who are funded for five years to work in a UK university.
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Author: Clive Cookson
