This report provides an overview of the UK spinouts landscape from a gender perspective. It is part of a wider
project, funded by the EPSRC’s Inclusion Matters programme, looking at the participation of women scientists, engineers and mathematicians in university spinout companies. The results examine sex-disaggregated data on the geography, governance and growth of these university spinout companies.
The findings of this report are timely and important since little is known about spinouts from a gender perspective.
This is despite evidence that women are greatly underrepresented on patent applications (14% according to
Elsevier), spinouts are overwhelmingly founded or co-founded by men (Jarboe et al), and women only make
up one in three entrepreneurs more generally (Rose Review). Addressing women’s underrepresentation in
spinout companies is thus not only a matter of social justice, but could also address a critical element of
the UK’s Industrial Strategy, which aims to increase business and growth through research and innovation.