Activation Partners

Interested or already building in Neurotech/Wearables and looking for a Co-Founder?

Pillar VC is bringing together aspiring founders and early builders at their new office in Kings Cross, London. Come meet your future co-founder, early team members or founder friends!

This is an accelerator for investors where 24 teams of 2 people have been competing across 3 rounds since May by conducting analysis and due diligence on a startup of their choice. The final 3 teams will present to a live audience of judges, investors, and ecosystem leaders at this Thursday Gathering. 

If you are a student or professional interested in pivoting into VC, a founder of a startup curious about how investors analyse your stats, or an investor looking for talent, this one’s for you!

This Thursday Gathering explores ARIA's Sculpting Innate Immunity Opportunity Space, bringing together researchers, founders and innovators at the forefront of one of the most exciting areas of modern science. Together, we'll explore how bold research moves beyond the lab through collaboration, investment and commercialisation.

AI could accelerate scientific discovery. So what's in the way?

Join in-person on Thursday 13th August for:

Challengescape launch - Encode's live map of translational AI-for-science problems, drawn from over 120 research proposals from across the UK. Explore the platform yourself, live on the night.

Roundtables led by CompMotifs - discussion on the real roadblocks facing AI for science, from the lab bench to funding and policy.

Scotland's charities and social enterprises are doing extraordinary things with too little resource and too little recognition. Meanwhile, billions of pounds in skilled volunteering go untapped, and funding flows through fragmented systems that exhaust the very organisations it's meant to support. 

This evening brings together founders, funders, technologists, and changemakers to ask a simple question: what if we built better systems and used the skills we already have to change that? 

Hear firsthand from founders and professionals who have successfully navigated the UK's visa pathways, alongside experts supporting global talent to thrive. Through an interactive panel, networking, and practical breakout sessions, you'll gain insights, expand your network, and discover the opportunities available to international innovators in the UK.

Full programme coming soon.

With applications opening on August 17th for ARIA’s 3rd cohort of Programme Directors, this event also offers a direct look into one of the most high-impact roles in UK R&D. ARIA Programme Directors are empowered with ~£50M budgets to design and lead ambitious, multi-year programmes selecting, funding, and actively steering diverse project portfolios across disciplines to unleash transformative change.

Whether you are a deeply technical leader seeing opportunity where others don't, a founder or researcher aligned with ARIA’s mission, or an ecosystem builder, join us to connect directly with the ARIA team and experience the cutting-edge companies commercialising research on the front lines.

Please note this event will be held at the Bayes Centre.