Swansea University is among the first partner members of a new national network for women entrepreneurs.
Five universities, led by Imperial College London, will join the WE Innovate National network which will run programmes to support 150 women-led teams each year across the participating institutions.
The network will be based on the format of Imperial’s flagship competition for women entrepreneurs, WE Innovate - a six-month programme for 25 teams led by students, recent alumni and Early Career Researchers.
The programme supports women founders through masterclasses, business coaching, 1-to-1 expert support, and peer mentoring, with the top five teams competing for a chance to win a share of a £30,000 prize fund.
Besides Swansea, the first universities collaborating with Imperial to build the WE Innovate National network are:
- Queen’s University Belfast
- University of Glasgow
- Durham University
Swansea University Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation Professor Helen Griffiths and for Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education Professor Deborah Youngs said: “Becoming part of the WE Innovate National network very much aligns with our institutional Enterprise Strategy and offers us the opportunity to unlock our talent by providing accessible programmes to support our brightest and best female entrepreneurs.
"Working together, sharing ideas, experience and knowledge not only helps the participants but will also drive forward innovation that could potentially benefit society and the economy in the future.”
Professor Mary Ryan, Imperial’s Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), said: “We’ve seen through WE Innovate how targeted support can accelerate the development of women-led ventures – building confidence, strengthening capability, and enabling founders to translate their ideas into real-world impact. That’s why we’re so pleased to be launching this national network.
“By collaborating with leading universities across the UK, we’re extending access to critical support structures – including mentoring, funding, and peer networks – that are proven to enhance early-stage innovation.
“Expanding opportunities for women in entrepreneurship is not only a matter of equity – it is essential to diversifying the innovation pipeline and driving inclusive, sustainable growth.”
The universities will work together to support the development of WE Innovate National and to adapt the programme to the specific contexts and communities in each region.
Alongside each university’s regional grand final, the WE Innovate National programme will also hold a national Demo Day at a different university each year. This will see the winning teams from each university present to an audience of peers, investors, and industry representatives.
In addition to the regional WE Innovate programmes, the participating universities will work to develop the WE Network – a national network that will create more opportunities for women founders to meet other startup teams, peer mentors, investors, and industry representatives from across the UK.
WE Innovate was first set up at Imperial in 2014 to address the challenges that women-led businesses often face at the earliest stages of their development, such as limited access to finance, networks, and business support.
Find out more about enterprise support at Swansea