East Midlands university fund gets £2m boost

The Lachesis Fund has now received total investment of £10m since it was established in 2002 under the government’s University Challenge initiative.

With initial government investment of £3m, Lachesis was set up as a venture-capital seed fund in response to a need for funding for new technologies being developed by the five main research universities in the East Midlands − De Montfort, Loughborough, Leicester, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent − who each contributed £200,000 to the fund. A further £650,000 was also raised from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), invested £3m in 2004 and £350,000 was secured through ERDF from a previous Objective 2 programme in 2005. However, Lachesis has now proven to be so effective that, with EMDA’s support, the fund has successfully bid for an additional £2m from the ERDF to further its work.

Lachesis is now being widened to include the universities of Derby, Lincoln and Northampton, who are joining as associate members.