Deputy Mayor Howard Dawber Officially Opens Leap – A New Shared Lab Facility For Early-Stage Companies From Imperial Incubator – At ARC West London

Leap, a new shared lab space from Imperial Incubator located at ARC West London, has been officially opened by Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Growth Howard Dawber OBE. Leap was created in response to the significant demand for collaborative incubator space across London. It aims to help alleviate London’s shortage of early-stage labs and enable rapidly growing businesses to remain in the city as they scale.

Leap supports the ambitions of the London Growth Plan which recognises life sciences as a key driver of growth across the city. In particular it will support frontier innovation, turning scientific discoveries and inventions into commercial products and services. Leap is located in ARC’s new 150,000 sq. ft Refinery building at its Hammersmith Campus, and is part of WestTech London, the innovation ecosystem at the heart of the UK capital that is creating jobs, attracting investment and cementing the UK’s position as a leader in science and technology.

ARC’s partnership with Imperial College London’s Imperial Incubator aims to remove barriers for startup founders giving them the resources, infrastructure, and community they need to scale groundbreaking ideas into impactful businesses. Imperial Incubator has led the way with its “rent-by-the-bench” shared lab model, offering access to science-ready workspaces, key equipment and startup support on flexible terms.

To celebrate the opening, ARC West London has launched a competition offering startups the chance to secure 12 months of fully funded lab space within Leap. With the ‘Leap Lab Pass’, two winning startups will be awarded a fully funded lab bench for 12 months, complemented by support from an onsite lab manager and access to the wider benefits of Imperial Incubator’s ecosystem.

Applications for the Leap Lab Pass competition are now open, and more details can be found at arcgroup.io/west-london/leap/

Jim Stretton, Managing Director of ARC, said: “Leap brings the best of Imperial Incubator’s world-class offer to our dynamic innovation campus in the heart of Hammersmith. Leap will create opportunities for ambitious founders to accelerate discoveries that can truly change lives, whilst strengthening West London as a global location for science, technology, and healthcare innovation.”

Professor Mary Ryan, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London, commented: “Start-ups are a vital part of the UK’s innovation engine, but they are too often constrained by access to space and specialist support. Shared labs like Leap create the conditions for rigorous science to translate faster, bringing facilities, mentorship and community together so founders can turn strong ideas into real-world impact. Being based at ARC West London connects early-stage companies into the WestTech London ecosystem, strengthening the pathway for deep tech and life sciences to scale and succeed globally.”

Howard Dawber OBE, Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Growth, added: “I am delighted to launch Leap which will support innovative startups with the facilities and expertise they need to grow.
London is already Europe’s leading city for life sciences, recognised as a vital driver of growth in our London Growth Plan. The partnership between Imperial and ARC West London is a powerful example of frontier innovation, turning discoveries into jobs, investment and growth. The Mayor and I look forward to supporting the impressive group of businesses based here as we continue building a more prosperous London for everyone.”

Located on the ground floor of Refinery, Leap sits alongside ARC’s established accelerator, Motherlabs, London’s first commercial science accelerator, which provides flexible and inclusive scale-up space for growing companies.

ARC West London provides the space and support for scientists and innovators to turn early-stage ideas into commercialised products by scaling under one roof. It is already home to leading science organisations including Kesmalea, Sania Therapeutics and Epsiolgen, and is only a short distance from Imperial’s White City and Hammersmith Hospital Campuses and Imperial NHS Healthcare Trust’s Charing Cross Hospital.

These landmark collaborations strengthen ARC’s growing presence in West London, where it is building a dynamic campus ecosystem that connects world-class research, high-growth companies, and capital. Its latest partnership with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will see the recruitment of a cluster manager to continue to develop West London’s innovation ecosystem further enhancing WestTech London’s position as a global hub for deep tech and life sciences innovation.

ENDS

About ARC

ARC is the smarter real estate partner for science and innovation. We concentrate innovation companies in Advanced Research Clusters — place-based clusters at the leading edges of major knowledge economies like Oxford and London. They’re unique ecosystems that accelerate commercial growth by providing the best possible working environments for our members.

Offices, coworking, cleanrooms, accelerator labs, and leading open access R&D facilities — discover flexible science-ready spaces within green, energising environments and community events in places designed to motivate and inspire.

ARC members learn to optimise their businesses from an active partner landlord that mentors as well as provides space. They take advantage of new ways to promote themselves using ARC as a platform, and they join a growing network of innovators that will one day be worldwide.

We’re solving the business of science so science can change the world. Welcome to ARC.

About Imperial College London

We are Imperial – a world-leading university for science, technology, engineering, medicine and business (STEMB), where scientific imagination leads to world-changing impact.

As a global top ten university in London, we use science to try to understand more of the universe and improve the lives of more people in it. Across our nine campuses and throughout our Imperial Global network, our 22,000 students, 8,000 staff, and partners work together on scientific discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their work navigates some of the world’s toughest challenges in global health, climate change, AI, business leadership and more.

Founded in 1907, Imperial’s future builds on a distinguished past, having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics. Today, Imperial combines exceptional teaching, world-class facilities and a habit of interdisciplinary practice to unlock scientific imagination.

About Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Imperial College Healthcare is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, with over 15,000 staff providing acute and specialist healthcare to over one million people a year. The Trust runs five hospitals in central and west London – Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, St Mary’s and the Western Eye. Led by the Trust, Paddington Life Sciences is a collaboration bringing together the NHS, industry and academic organisations with a shared commitment to developing a life sciences cluster centred around St Mary’s Hospital.

Find out more: www.imperial.nhs.uk.

About Imperial Incubator

Imperial Incubator is a first home for lab-based startups: a place where new science gets off to a strong start. Members gain access to move-in-ready labs and offices, shared facilities and specialist guidance tailored to the unique needs of early-stage ventures. As a gateway to Imperial’s world-class ecosystem, the Incubator connects startups with advanced equipment, cutting-edge research, leading academics, talented graduates and industry networks that would otherwise be out of reach. Since 2016, it has supported 59 companies across sectors ranging from cleantech to medtech, helping them secure over £622 million in funding and create more than 600 jobs.