Imperial College London has revealed details of a £5m facility in west London, dedicated to its network of ‘Advanced Hackspaces’.
Based at White City and named the Invention Rooms, it will be dedicated to supporting the next generation of investors, entrepreneurs and tech leaders.
There is already a network of six hackspaces, and that number is soon expected to rise to eight.
ICL’s goal is to provide a community of inventors across an entire property, and integrate the concept directly into the university to encourage cross-pollination between academics, inventors and students.
Chemical biologist and part of the management team for the hackspace, Professor Oscar Ces, said: “The Advanced Hackspace is about powering innovation from the bottom up.
“We want to make it as easy for an undergraduate to make their idea a reality as it is for their faculty professor.
“It’s also an opportunity for hundreds of new collaborations – a place where a medic will talk to an engineer and a physicist will socialise with a computer scientist, helping combine brilliant ideas.”
In recent years, ICL’s hackspaces has been home to the likes of baby incubator firm LifeCradle, wearable device developers Gyroglove and modular smartwatch innovators Blocks.