Imperial becomes first UK university to open tech hub in US

Imperial College London has launched science and technology hub in San Francisco, making it the first UK university to have a permanent base on US soil.

Imperial Global USA will create around 100 tech partnerships between the UK and the US to enable scientists to scale their research and find solutions to global challenges.

The university said that there are already a number of successful collaborations taking place, including a partnership between Imperial and Agilent Technologies, to harness analytical technologies with research in chemical analysis, life sciences, and diagnostics.

Additionally, Imperial is collaborating with UC Berkeley and mining company Rio Tinto to find sustainable ways to provide the materials the world needs to support the scale up of clean energy.

Imperial said it has created a new external advisory board to oversee the hub and ensure it is connected into the rest of the San Francisco tech ecosystem.

The board will be chaired by Wendy Tan White, who is currently the chief executive of robotics software company Intrinsic and a board trustee at the Alan Turing Institute.

“Opening a physical presence in San Francisco is going to supercharge our capabilities to support world-leading British science and tech to collaborate with American partners,” said professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London. “Our new hub will be a front door in the heart of the Bay Area to help spinouts, academics and innovators create the kind of partnerships that will lead to world-changing scientific discoveries.”