Since launching our Golden Ticket Programme, Pioneer Group has partnered with a number of leading organisations, including Abbvie, CPI and Novo Nordisk.  

 The programme is part of our venture development support services for early-stage companies that are innovating solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face as a society.

Here, we delve deeper into what our Golden Ticket Programmes offer, speak to some past winners about their experiences, and share details of our latest programme run in partnership with Novo Nordisk.

What are Pioneer Group’s Golden Ticket Programmes?

Open to early-stage life sciences companies and biotech start-ups, our Golden Ticket Programmes support businesses that are working to develop cutting-edge therapies, innovations, or technology platforms across a wide range of areas.

The initiatives provide much needed support to help translate UK science into the medicines of tomorrow.

Lisa Thomas, Director & Venture Development Partner at Pioneer Group, explains: “We’ve been successfully running Golden Ticket Programmes for a few years now at Pioneer Group. We work with entrepreneurs all the way through their journey from pre startup spin outs, through to pre accelerators and accelerators, and finally onto the Launch Programme. Our Golden Ticket Programmes use all these resources and the skills we have to provide entrepreneurs with the right spaces to do their science, so they can really maximise their impact.”

What do Golden Ticket Winners Receive? 

Prizes vary from competition to competition, and depend on who we are partnered with, but winners are generally awarded with:

• 12 months’ free lab bench workspace for one scientist at a Pioneer Group location
• Access to specialist R&D scientists, business leaders and our partner network, with opportunities for mentoring and collaboration

Support for academics

Academic researchers, with their deep expertise and critical thinking skills, are well-suited to lead biotech startups. Indeed, more academic researchers than ever are transforming their discoveries into successful startups, with a study by Roche, Conti, and Rothaermel reporting that 30% of startups in their cohort were founded by at least one professor.

However, transitioning from research to startup presents several challenges, from a lack of commercial experience and limited access to industry resources, to the difficulty of balancing research with business demands.

Accelerators like our Golden Ticket Programme address these obstacles by providing free lab space, mentorship, and access to networks, helping academics turn their scientific breakthroughs into viable biotech ventures.

A Look Back at Past Winners

1. Innovations in Planetary Health

Earlier this year, we were delighted to award HydRegen with our Planetary Health Golden Ticket.

Run in partnership with CPI, the programme was open to hydrogen and climate technology companies that are creating innovative solutions to some of the biggest planetary health challenges we face, with funding for the initiative coming from the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative (HII).

A spin-out from the University of Oxford, HydRegen is a biotechnology company that enables more sustainable chemical synthesis and manufacturing by replacing toxic, heavy-metal catalysts in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, utilising hydrogen as a feedstock within their processes. 

HydRegen’s victory ensures it will benefit from a year-long span of venture development support with Pioneer, along with ongoing innovation assistance from CPI. This will involve one-to-one technology advice, consultancy, bid development, and access to testing facilities, and HydRegen will also gain entry to Pioneer’s incubation space at the Wilton Centre for scale-up work. Find out more about HydRegen’s win here.

Dr Holly Reeve, CEO & Co-Founder of HydRegen, says: “It was really exciting to win the Golden Ticket. We’re delighted to have some space up in Teesside and to be a bit more embedded in the larger scale manufacturing scene.

“There’s a whole load of new, unknown challenges about to come our way. Having support with teams and training opportunities from Pioneer Group stands us in good stead. I’m really excited for what’s coming.”

2. Innovations in Human Health

Back in 2022, Coventry-based biotech start-up, NanoSyrinx, was named the winner of the 2022 AbbVie UK Golden Ticket.

NanoSyrinx is the first company to engineer protein ‘nanosyringes’, a cell-selective non-viral peptide and protein delivery system. The company’s technology has the potential to unlock an entirely new range of intracellular targets which are currently inaccessible to biologic drugs, enabling the development of new medicines across a wide range of therapeutic areas.

As the inaugural winner of our Golden Ticket programme, NanoSyrinx was provided with a year of free lab space, funded by AbbVie, at Pioneer Group’s BioCity Nottingham site, plus tailored support from AbbVie’s world-leading global and UK scientists, business leaders and mentors and exclusive access to AbbVie and Pioneer Group’s networks.

Since winning the Golden Ticket, NanoSyrinx has continued to go from strength to strength, with the company recently closing on a £10 million financing round. Earlier this year, NanoSyrinx Founder & CEO, Dr Joe Healey – who developed the company’s technology during his PhD at the University of Warwick – was invited to Number 10 Downing Street to discuss the future of Engineering Biology in the UK.

Commenting on winning the Golden Ticket, Joe says: “We are incredibly proud to have been the first-ever AbbVie UK Golden Ticket winner. The award recognised the potential of our unique nanosyringe platform to address a wide range of challenges associated with the intracellular delivery of biological therapeutics. Through the programme, we have been able to engage more deeply with the experts from AbbVie and access the support of Pioneer Group as we’ve moved forward with building our internal pipeline.”

3. Innovations of the Future

Also in 2022, Deliver Bio (previously ImmTune Therapies) was chosen as the winner of the Future Innovator Prize, run in collaboration with Astellas Venture Management – a wholly owned venture capital subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc.

Deliver Bio develops in vivo cell and gene therapies via its proprietary nanoparticle-based platform, with an ambitious vision of making these therapies more affordable, scalable and accessible to all patients in need. It was selected as the winner of the Future Innovator Prize for its unique approach in immuno-oncology, cell and gene therapies, and regenerative medicine, as well as its well-defined business plan, objectives and differentiated approach in terms of delivery and targeting.

Like NanoSyrinx, Deliver Bio has continued to flourish since its win. In the same year it won our Future Innovator Prize, the company was also awarded the prestigious Biomedical Catalyst Grant by Innovate UK, while its CEO, Dr Bakul Gupta, won Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Award.

Our Latest Programme: Golden Ticket with Novo Nordisk

Most recently, Pioneer Group has teamed up with global healthcare company Novo Nordisk to launch a Golden Ticket programme designed to help accelerate innovations in cardiometabolic health.  

The fourth Golden Ticket programme run by Pioneer Group, our partnership with Novo Nordisk follows previous programmes formed through collaborations with CPI, AbbVie, and Astellas.  

Who Should Apply?

Pioneer Group and Novo Nordisk want to hear from science and technology founders as well as innovators from established businesses who are creating approaches for cardiometabolic disease in the following areas: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease co-morbidities & rare disease, drug discovery & enabling technology. Further details on each of these areas can be found in our recent press release.

How to Enter

Entries to the Pioneer and Novo Nordisk Golden Ticket competition will close on 15 November 2024. All entries will be reviewed by the Pioneer and Novo Nordisk selection committee, and shortlisted candidates will be invited to a virtual pitching event.

The Golden Ticket winner will be announced during the first week of December, with the potential for the winner to move into their chosen incubator space in January 2025.