Co-Laboratories was formed after witnessing several promising biotech startups fail for non-technical reasons. We think it's incredibly frustrating when exciting ideas fail before lift-off. Too many potentially groundbreaking companies have crumbled at early stages due to lack of support, most commonly due to a crucial disadvantage: lack of affordable, appropriate infrastructure to support their work.

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We are looking to change the way scientists and the biocurious can test ideas and get started in biotech. Access to reasonable lab space has been restrictive for teams and stifled innovation, so we aim to grow open spaces for innovative ideas, being a forum for new growth and collaboration. We will achieve this through building and developing new biotechnology incubator communities, both privately and in partnership with other institutions, to greatly reduce the barrier to entry for smaller creative biotech groups.

There has been amazing growth in the sector in recent years, however as shown by the recent report commissioned by MedCity, we have a long way to go in addressing the rising demand. In the USA, particularly the west and east coasts, the need for a pipeline approach has been recognised for a long time. There is now a rapidly growing community working to service startups in the pre-seed to series A space - yet all incubators are still oversubscribed! Lab Launch is a company that has successfully done this in LA for 7 years, proving that a fully independent incubator is a great model. Due to their strong track record and tried and tested methods, we will be partnering with them to bring this flexible incubator model to the UK, leveraging their experience to help local teams bring their ideas to fruition.

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Camden has been chosen as the first co-lab (co-working lab) location, thanks to our local contacts and support from Camden Council. Our next targets for community building are places with high demand and low access, some of which we are currently in the negotiation phase of. Reports demonstrate that locations such as Cambridge are suffering from rent hikes and lack of Biological wet lab space, providing a great opportunity and strong rationale for bringing our model to the city. We are actively seeking proposals at other locations that will have greater social impact and are looking forwards to partnering with institutions; some future projects will be announced next year.