Medicines Discovery Catapult & the Francis Crick Institute Partner to Support KQ Labs, a Leading Accelerator for Life Sciences Innovators

Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) and the Francis Crick Institute are pleased to announce a new strategic partnership to support the delivery of KQ Labs, a national accelerator for data-driven health science start-ups.

Founded and hosted by the Crick, the KQ Labs program is an annual 5-month launchpad for up to 10 start-ups building science-backed, scalable solutions in drug discovery, digital health, precision medicine, and beyond. KQ Labs helps young companies de-risk their innovation and provides them with expert mentoring and access to high-value industry and investor networks.

Since 2018, KQ Labs has supported 70 start-ups across seven cohorts, helping them to transform breakthrough biomedical and data science ideas into scalable commercial ventures. Collectively, KQ Labs alumni have raised over £219 million in investment to date.

Through this new partnership, MDC will contribute expertise and funding to help scale KQ Labs’ national impact. Drawing on its national networks, MDC will help extend the program’s reach to promising early stage ventures across the UK. It will also offer expert drug discovery and translational support to help participating companies validate their ideas and strengthen their commercial readiness. There are also potential opportunities for further support through MDC’s wider programs and initiatives.

This announcement coincides with the KQ Labs Demo Day, where the 2025 cohort of ten start-ups will showcase their innovations to an audience of investors, corporates, and ecosystem leaders.

Applications for the next program will open July 1, 2025.

Professor Chris Molloy, Chief Executive Officer, Medicines Discovery Catapult, said “Young biotechs are the high-risk heartbeat of our sector, and they deserve industry-class translational support to make them Fit to Fund and grow. As a national Life Sciences service, that is what MDC is here for. We are delighted to be supporting this vital accelerator programme: defragmenting the nation, driving collaboration and deploying targeted funding to make companies more investor-ready. Together, KQ Labs, the Crick and MDC will maximise impact for the sector, the nation, and most importantly, patients.”

Dr. Nicola Heron, Chief Strategy Officer, Medicines Discovery Catapult, added “Data-driven approaches offer the key to unlock significant advancements in healthcare. The UK’s brightest biotechs are applying groundbreaking AI, machine learning and advanced computational techniques to find new ways to treat disease, opening an exciting avenue for drug discovery innovation. We look forward to working with some of these companies and helping to realise the potential of their game-changing ideas.”

Dr. Stephen Mayhew, Chief Business Officer, the Francis Crick Institute, also added “A key strategic objective for the Crick is to support biomedical research endeavours across the UK. KQ Labs is a key part of this mission, and this new partnership with MDC will allow us to scale its impact even further.”

Dr. Barbara Domayne-Hayman, KQ Labs Chair and Entrepreneur in Residence at the Francis Crick Institute, concluded “KQ Labs has established itself over the last seven years as a flagship programme for data-driven health founders. With this support from MDC, we can build on a strong foundation and help even more early-stage ventures succeed.”

KQ Labs plays a critical role in shaping a thriving UK life sciences ecosystem, particularly within London’s Knowledge Quarter. It connects the UK’s world-leading expertise in biomedical research and data science with the growing demand for digital innovation in healthcare.

For more information, please visit www.crick.ac.uk/research/applying-our-research/entrepreneurship/kq-labs.

Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) is a national Life Sciences service dedicated to turning drug discovery into commercial breakthroughs. At the frontier of drug discovery, MDC works with entrepreneurial scientists to make every move count. It validates their ideas, de-risks investments, and feeds insights back into the sector to drive productivity and impact.​ MDC creates momentum through its unique blend of discovery expertise, technology, insights, and sector-leading partnerships. Where there is unmet patient need, MDC stimulates innovation through its National Programmes. ​ MDC has worked with ~300 organizations, which have gone on to raise more than £1.3bn of R&D investment.​ Its approach to drug discovery drives game-changing breakthroughs and improves patients’ lives.​

KQ Labs is the UK’s leading accelerator dedicated to data-driven health. Founded and hosted by the Francis Crick Institute, and supported by Medicines Discovery Catapult and other partners including Cancer Research Horizons, KQ Labs offers a customised framework, providing critical expertise and support to ten carefully selected companies each year, all solving significant healthcare problems.  The intersection between the biomedical and data sciences promises to play a transformational role in solving some of the most difficult challenges facing global health systems. The KQ Labs accelerator represents a unique opportunity to catalyse the creation of a world class sustainable digital health ecosystem based in London’s Knowledge Quarter. By harnessing the world-class data science and biomedical resources available in the area, we can reinforce the UK’s position as a major force in artificial intelligence in health and life sciences and build a world class cluster of successful data-driven health start-ups. www.kqlabs.com

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute with the mission of understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work helps improve our understanding of why disease develops which promotes discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease. An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London. The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a brand new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under a single roof in Europe. http://crick.ac.uk/