Scaling venture science research and innovation

创业公司越来越多地专注于解决紧迫的社会问题（例如食品系统弹性，精神疾病，慢性疾病管理，失业等）。通过新的，可扩展的创新，有可能产生大规模的影响。支持这些公司有效地利用高质量的科学研究，特别是社会和行为科学研究，可以加速它们的进步、影响和成功。此外，通过研究和实验，初创企业还创造了一系列机会，以推进科学知识，并为科学家创造机会。该项目的重点是开发一种商业创新方法，改变初创企业应用和推进研究的方式，特别是从行为科学和社会科学。该项目的一个关键重点是探索为在这些初创公司工作的科学家提供新形式的支持，这些科学家有能力推进这一议程，但目前没有得到很好的支持或联系。所有这些工作都集中在四个领域：心理健康，健康老龄化，经济弹性和环境。在过去的三年里，项目团队一直在与创业者合作，建立正在解决这些领域之一的问题的初创公司。在下一阶段，我们计划进一步推进这一议程，特别关注四个机会：扩展到新的科学和技术领域;扩大与初创公司的合作，超越早期（形成）阶段;开发一种强大的方法来衡量初创公司对他们正在努力实现的结果（例如健康和环境）的影响;并测试对在初创公司工作的科学家的新形式的支持。该项目由一家名为Zinc的风险投资公司主办，该公司运营着一系列旨在帮助个人通过科学丰富的商业创新对重要社会问题产生更大影响的项目。

Startup companies are increasingly focused on tackling urgent societal problems (e.g. food systems resilience, mental ill-health, chronic disease management, unemployment, etc.) through new, scalable innovations that have the potential for large-scale impact. Supporting such companies to effectively draw on high quality scientific research, particularly from the social and behavioural sciences, can accelerate their progress, impact and success. Further, through their research and experimentation, startups also create a range of opportunities to advance scientific knowledge and create opportunities for scientists.This project focuses on developing an approach to commercial innovation that transforms the ways in which startups apply and advance research, particularly from the behavioural and social sciences. A key focus within this project is to explore new forms of support for scientists working in such startups, who are well placed to advance this agenda but currently not well supported or connected. All of this work is focused on four areas: mental health, healthy ageing, economic resilience, and the environment. Over the last three years, the project team has been working with entrepreneurs building startups that are tackling problems within one of these areas. In the next phase, we plan to further advance this agenda with particular focus on four opportunities: expanding into new areas of science and technology; expanding to work with startups beyond the very early (formation) stages; developing a robust way of measuring the impact of startups on the (e.g. health and environmental) outcomes they are working towards; and testing new forms of support for scientists who work in startups. The project is being hosted by a venture-builder and investor called Zinc, which runs a number of programmes designed to help individuals have more impact on important societal problems, through science-rich, commercial innovations.