Venturing Out
Onward think tank's recurring report series tracking UK lab-to-factory conversion failures in deep-tech.
Last refreshed: 22 April 2026
Why does Onward's Venturing Out series keep writing about British research leaving the country as factories?
Timeline for Venturing Out
Mentioned in: EC clears €211m Italian aid for Cambridge spinout
UK Startups and Innovation- What is Onward's Venturing Out report series about?
- Venturing Out is a recurring Onward think tank report series examining why UK deep-tech IP — in graphene, photonics, quantum and life sciences — tends to be commercialised as manufacturing capacity abroad rather than in Britain.
- Why did the CamGraPhIC factory go to Italy instead of the UK?
- The European Commission approved €211m of Italian state aid for CamGraPhIC, a Cambridge graphene photonics spinout; the UK had no comparable grant instrument. The Venturing Out series has been documenting this lab-to-factory gap for four years.Source: Onward / Venturing Out; EC approval, April 2026
- How long has Onward been documenting the UK lab-to-factory gap?
- Onward's Venturing Out series has been documenting the UK lab-to-factory conversion gap for at least four years as of April 2026.Source: Onward / Venturing Out
- What deep-tech sectors does the Venturing Out series cover?
- The series focuses on graphene, photonics, Quantum computing and life sciences, tracing the structural reasons why UK university IP commercialises as manufacturing capacity abroad.
Background
Venturing Out resurfaced in April 2026 as the reference framework for interpreting the CamGraPhIC Italy decision. When the European Commission approved €211m of Italian state aid for the University of Cambridge graphene photonics spinout, Onward's series offered the standing editorial verdict: four years of documented policy effort had not yet caught the lab-to-factory conversion mechanism. The CamGraPhIC announcement is described as the latest quarterly reminder that the policy gap remains open.
Venturing Out is a recurring report series published by the Onward think tank examining the conversion of British research output into domestic manufacturing, jobs and industrial capital. The series focuses on deep-tech sectors including graphene, photonics, Quantum computing and life sciences, tracing the structural reasons why IP generated in UK universities tends to commercialise as manufacturing capacity abroad. Onward has been publishing the series for at least four years as of April 2026.
The series functions as the analytical backbone for a specific strand of UK industrial policy debate: what the briefing calls the "IP stays in Cambridge, factory goes abroad" pattern. Its framing has shaped coverage of graphene, quantum and photonics commercialisation and sits alongside the ProQure and SAIU policy responses the government has deployed to address the gap it documents.