PIPE is the ecosystem infrastructure connecting world-class university R&D/IP with the commercial expertise, structured validation, and aligned capital required to realise lasting value — for researchers, universities, investors, and society.
Designed to complement Technology Transfer Offices and research commercialisation strategies — without adding fixed overhead. Compatible with university governance and IP protection requirements.
Universities generate breakthrough discovery every day — yet most of the value remains trapped in early-stage R&D and IP. Not because the science isn't strong. Because translation is hard.
The "too early" gap. The majority of university innovations sit between discovery and commercial readiness — too early for traditional venture capital, too complex for simple licensing.
Resource-constrained TTOs. Technology Transfer Offices face enormous portfolios with limited staff — naturally focusing on patents over commercial pathways.
Researchers alone cannot scale it. Academics lack the time, commercial incentives, and structured support to navigate the journey from discovery to venture formation on their own.
Investors cannot find the signal. Early-stage university IP is under-structured, under-validated, and difficult to assess — creating information asymmetry that prevents capital deployment.
Spray-and-pray will not fix it. Traditional venture capital approaches — moonshot bets, short investment horizons — are misaligned with the realities of frontier university research commercialisation.
World-class R&D at universities and research institutions
This is where value dies.
Spin-out, licence, joint venture — or IPO
PIPE provides the systematic, standardised, and repeatable infrastructure that turns promising early-stage research into validated, structured, fundable opportunities. We bring together universities, researchers, commercial operators, and aligned investors — and keep them aligned from disclosure through to listing.
We are not a consultancy. Not a fund. Not a TTO.
We are the ecosystem layer that makes translation repeatable.
The PIPE Platform and Lab to IPO Pathway contains a unique system of stage-gates managed by the QED system — combining people, process, and technology to find, form, and fund the best university R&D/IP.
IP-safe disclosure. Innovations are submitted without disclosing the inventive step — IP moves into a protected digital vault, allowing arm's-length review whilst enabling both patenting and publishing to proceed.
Systematic validation. Every project receives an empirical Go/No-Go assessment across commercial, environmental, and societal dimensions before resources are committed.
Associate-led value creation. Experienced operators with deep domain, technical, and financial expertise are embedded into projects — shaping ventures, not simply advising.
Aligned capital access. PIPE Investors gain access to curated, validated, de-risked opportunities — with up to €2m in initial funding and no upper limit on subsequent rounds.
A pathway to PIPExchange. Projects that successfully complete incubation can be listed on the PIPExchange — securing future funding rounds, all the way to IPO.
Five rigorously gated stages — each with Go/No-Go checkpoints managed by the QED system — ensure only the strongest opportunities advance, and that those which do are truly investment-ready.
Researchers submit innovations without disclosing the inventive step. IP moves to a protected digital vault (dynamic NFT structure). Projects receive empirical Go/No-Go viability assessment.
Formal evaluation takes projects to TRL 4. Market analysis, use-case definition, SRM 3 (Solution Readiness for Market), PRI 1 (Proposition Readiness for Investment), and business operational readiness are all assessed.
PIPE Associates bring deep operational and domain expertise to build the commercial pathway — forming the foundations for a spin-out, licence, or joint venture, with IP structuring and team formation.
PIPE Investors and the PGF / PIPE gDAO deploy aligned capital — up to €2m in initial tranches against KPIs. Patient, structured, early-stage funding aligned to the realities of university research timelines.
Protégé Companies are listed on the PIPExchange — securing future funding rounds with no upper limit, up to full IPO. Board observation, licence management, and joint venture support continues beyond listing.
The process is iterative, automated, and collaborative — with the QED system measuring associated risk and value, recording tasks for technical and business roadmaps, and ultimately producing the investment schedule. No other pathway engages with projects this early, helps move them forward, and provides aligned investment.
PIPE aligns incentives and capability across the full translational journey — so that early-stage R&D/IP can move forward without relying on heroic effort from any single stakeholder.
Expand commercialisation outcomes without expanding fixed overhead. PIPE complements your technology transfer approach — providing structured triage, external operator expertise, and aligned investor access to unlock more of the long tail of IP. Strengthen impact metrics, improve the quality of investment-ready opportunities, and create repeatable translational pathways across all faculties.
Partner as a University →Get structured support to translate discovery into real-world application — without losing academic focus or navigating the commercial journey alone. PIPE provides a clear translational roadmap, access to experienced associates, and structured optionality: spin-out, licence, or partnership. The pathway is designed for the realities of frontier research — your timeline, your mission.
Submit an Innovation →Apply deep commercial and operational expertise where it matters most — building value early, shaping opportunities, and sharing in the upside. Work within a structured ecosystem rather than ad-hoc advisory. Access curated opportunities across disciplines. Build a portfolio of translational value creation with equity and outcome-aligned returns. Be the engine behind breakthrough research.
Become an Associate →Access early-stage university innovation that has been curated, TRL-validated, and commercially structured before capital is deployed. PIPE reduces information asymmetry — providing validated pipelines, structured opportunities with Associates embedded, and clear pathways to the PIPExchange. Patient, aligned exposure to breakthrough innovation from frontier research institutions.
Join the Investor Network →PIPE complements your Technology Transfer Office — not replacing it, but extending its reach. Access structured triage, external operator expertise, and aligned investor networks to unlock more of your IP portfolio without permanent headcount growth.
PIPE supports researchers with a structured pathway that respects academic incentives and time constraints — whilst providing access to commercial operators and early-stage investor alignment. You bring the science. We build the bridge.
PIPE Associates bring real-world commercialisation expertise to early-stage university innovation — turning promising research into structured opportunities and sharing meaningfully in value creation. This is operator-led impact investing.
PIPE converts frontier R&D/IP into investable opportunities — reducing information asymmetry and dramatically improving investment readiness before capital is deployed. Access the innovation before the crowd.
PIPE combines institutional-grade process management with Web3 infrastructure — creating a unique combination of validation rigour, IP protection, and decentralised capital access.
The QED system is the operational intelligence at the heart of the PIPE Lab to IPO Pathway — a proprietary methodology first developed in 2012 and continuously evolved to combine people, process, and technology in a way that works efficiently with the distributed ledger technology underpinning it.
ANY project from ANY area can be disclosed and validated on a like-for-like, standardised basis. This is unique to PIPE — providing institutional investors with the assurance of immutable, auditable progress records.
The PIPE gDAO is a members-only Impact Finance ecosystem for fundraising world-changing university inventions as Real World Assets (RWA) through Decentralised Science (DeSci). Projects tokenised on the PIPE gDAO's DeSci Launchpad gain access to approximately €200m of funds annually.
The PIPExchange — the Pre-IPO Exchange — is the final stage of the Lab to IPO Pathway, where Protégé Companies are listed, securing future funding with no upper ceiling, through to full IPO.
Designed from the ground up to work with university governance, protect IP, and align all stakeholders — without compromising academic freedom or commercial ambition.
IP-safe disclosure protects both patent potential and publication timelines. PIPE complements existing TTO processes without requiring structural change.
Every stakeholder — researcher, Associate, university, investor — has transparent, documented roles and aligned upside. No hidden agendas, no extraction.
PIPE Associates bring domain and commercial expertise directly into project teams — active value creation, not passive consultancy.
Every project that passes the QED stage-gates is structured, validated, and documented to institutional investment standards — reducing due diligence friction and deployment risk.
Thought leadership, frameworks, and practical intelligence on unlocking the long tail of university innovation — covering translational pathways, early-stage value creation, and investor alignment.
83% of university inventions never see the light of day. The economic impact of just the 17% that do is $591 billion per year. What would happen if we could unlock even half of the rest?
Read more →The bottleneck in university innovation is not science quality — it is the absence of repeatable, standardised infrastructure between discovery and commercial value. Here is how PIPE changes that.
Read more →Information asymmetry is the primary reason investors can't access early-stage university IP. The QED pathway solves this through standardised validation, TRL-gating, and IP-safe documentation.
Read more →PIPE exists to make translation repeatable — so that more university research becomes real-world value, and more breakthroughs complete the journey from lab to IPO.