The incubator

Imperial Innovations, London, has created over 60 spin-out firms and attracted £175 million of external investment, creating over 550 jobs. The engineering head of the company, Brian Graves, is responsible for looking at inventions, identifying whether the technology should be licensed or spun out, organizing the incubating teams and working on the funding strategy. The key to the organization's impressive track record is the emphasis it places on the incubation of companies. A promising technology of the company is the development of sensor networks that concerns the use of wearable or wireless implantable sensors to monitor vital signs in a user's body. The device could be used for a number of medical applications and monitor people working in hazardous industrial environments. The company says that placing pressure on in-house resources has led to a more strategic approach to the identification of innovation and technology, forcing companies to adopt and deploy new technology.