Ploughshare is the hub that makes government innovations prosper.

Established in 2005 as the technology transfer partner for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), our purpose is to ensure UK government innovations deliver real prosperity to the economy, our society, people’s lives, and the environment.

We do this by connecting the right people to take scientific and technical innovations developed across government and find ways to get technologies into the hands of users efficiently and at pace. Our aims are not limited to financial returns but also the impact that can be achieved. We’re in this for the long term, to help everyone in our ecosystem maximise the benefits of innovations.

Powered by people

Ploughshare is a people business fuelled by amazing innovations - we recognise that the best ideas will go nowhere without the right people. For more than 15 years we have worked with an array of scientists, innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, SMEs and public sector organisations to bring about the commercialisation of many great innovations. It is by bringing people together that we deliver impact from innovations and is the reason we continue to be the catalyst that brings communities together to drive the success of our ventures.

Innovation pool

We unlock the potential of government-owned, cutting-edge innovations. With unique access to world-class technologies from organisations such as Dstl, Ministry of Defence, and the Atomic Weapons Establishment, we find ways to deliver impact from government’s investment in Science & Technology (S&T).

Our expertise enables us to handle a wide range of technologies to find the best outcomes. Just some of the innovations we’ve helped to deliver include:

» a predictive test for sepsis that has the potential to save millions of lives a year
» new chemistry that recovers fingerprints from ‘impossible’ surfaces that will lead to more successful gun and knife crime convictions
» software that enables uncrewed high-speed boats fully autonomous navigation that will be used to protect our armed forces
» a liquid repellent coating that has been used to waterproof more than 350 million devices, including Samsung and Huawei mobile phones
» delivery of 10,000 test kits to aid workers responding to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone