Scientific progress needs patient capital. We are building a practical bridge between ambitious research and the institutions capable of funding it for the long term.
Scientists, clinicians, industry and finance often work in different worlds and speak different languages. That makes collaboration harder and leaves too few mechanisms through which institutional capital can flow into science — even where the interests of researchers, investors and society align.
Short grant cycles also make it difficult to sustain teams and long-horizon programmes. Researchers repeatedly compete for the next two or three years of funding when the scientific challenge itself may take decades.
We are developing a long-dated financing structure designed to connect universities and research organisations with pension funds, insurers, asset managers and other institutional investors. The aim is to create stable research income while giving investors a recognisable instrument linked to scientific progress and public benefit.
Longer-term, more stable funding can keep teams together, reduce the continual grant-writing cycle and create room for ambitious ideas whose value may only become clear over time.
A route to support science through a familiar long-dated instrument, responding to demand for investments with public benefit and for greater investment in the UK.
A potential way to increase the capital available to science without relying solely on additional conventional grant spending from the public purse.
Define ambitious, reportable research programmes and provide the institutional platform.
Pension funds, insurers, banks and asset managers provide capital through an investable structure.
The financial structure creates a new stream of long-term support for research.
The Finance the Future Bond is a proposed structure under development, not an issued security or investment offer. Detailed financial design, pricing, governance and risk management require institutional and professional due diligence.
We are in advanced discussions with universities, research institutes, banks, institutional investors and government about how the model can work in practice.
In June 2026, Finance the Future hosted a workshop at Kew Gardens attended by leaders from science, industry, finance and the public sector. The workshop tested the assumptions behind the model and explored practical routes towards implementation.
We are keen to speak with research organisations, financial institutions, government and others interested in developing and testing the model.