This consortium fully funds five PhDs with total autonomy and research investment to build innovation beyond traditional scientific bottlenecks
LONDON, March 10, 2026: Deep Science Ventures announces the funding of the third cohort of its Venture Science Doctorate programme, which empowers a new archetype of Venture Scientist to solve neglected health and planetary challenges. Starting this April, the next cohort of five venture scientists will be supported by a funding consortium led by SPRIND, Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, and joined for the first time by the investment and philanthropy platform Builders Vision.
The programme is a pioneering model of entrepreneurship-focused doctoral training, offering a unique level of investment and freedom for the selected candidates who receive an all expenses paid package covering everything from tuition and stipends to travel and research consumables.
The scientists are given total autonomy to select and define their own research topics. With access to a starting network of more than thirty world class labs globally, the candidates are not tied to any single institution, allowing them to iterate on their ideas and move fluidly between different laboratory environments to follow the science wherever it leads. Starting with a target societal outcome and with a goal to create a high impact company removes the financial risk often associated with high risk research and entrepreneurship.
By restoring agency and re-empowering early career scientists in the doctoral process and prioritising the solving of neglected problems from the ground up, the Venture Science Doctorate broadens the vocational pathway to train scientific talent who can complement discovery research, combining it into high impact ventures, side by side with traditional PhDs.
Dr. Thane Campbell, Dean of Education at Deep Science Ventures, said: "The Venture Science Doctorate is a new piece of industrial infrastructure. Together with SPRIND and Builders Vision, we are proving that when you strip away the bureaucratic constraints of traditional academia and give the world’s most talented individuals the freedom to focus on outcomes, PhDs can solve global challenges."
Barbara Diehl, Chief Partnership Officer at SPRIND, said: "At SPRIND, our mission is to find and fund the breakthroughs that will shape our future, and that requires a new breed of innovator which the current system does not produce in sufficient enough numbers to meet the world's toughest challenges. We are proud to lead this consortium and continue our support for the Venture Science Doctorate."
Dr. Xiao Recio-Blanco, Program Officer at Builders Vision Philanthropy, said: "Protecting and strengthening the resilience of ocean ecosystems is a key focus for Builders Vision, and achieving this requires scaling innovative solutions that advance a sustainable blue economy. By joining this consortium, we’re recognising that a new blueprint for doctoral training can help develop Venture Scientists who drive market creation and growth across this emerging sector.”
The Venture Science Doctorate is currently the only known programme of its kind in Europe or North America, with the only other comparator recently launched in China. Doctoral Fellows are addressing such global challenges as boosting longevity for two billion women by staving off menopause-related diseases; scaling energy transition through deuterium-based fusion reactors that can last ten times longer than current solutions; and extending the lifespan of all humans by triggering endogenous protein signaling.
ENDS
About Deep Science Ventures
Deep Science Ventures is a venture creator building deeptech companies in 4 sectors: Agriculture, Climate, Computation and Pharmaceuticals. For just under a decade, DSV has pioneered venture creation through funded partnerships with organisations like Coca-Cola, AbbVie, Anglo American, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency - ARIA (the UK's ARPA), and Cancer Research UK. DSV’s portfolio, worth over half a billion dollars, has raised more than $240m from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Sequoia, Sam Altman, and Patrick Collison. DSV is a global team of scientists and exited founders based in London, Tokyo, and Boston, with backgrounds from Bell Labs, Imperial College, and Intel. https://www.deepscienceventures.com/
About SPRIND
SPRIND is the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, founded in 2019 and dedicated to supporting groundbreaking technologies and innovations that can fundamentally improve lives and address the major challenges of our time. Each year, SPRIND invests approximately €250 million in European breakthrough technologies, enabling visionary ideas, their development and market launch. www.sprind.org
About Builders Vision
Builders Vision is an investment and philanthropy platform that harnesses innovative capital to build a more resilient future. We grow and transform markets that generate financial returns and sustainable outcomes across three sectors: food & agriculture, energy and oceans. Our success is only possible because of our collaboration with the entrepreneurs, innovators and investors who share our commitment to building the economy of tomorrow. Learn more about Builders Vision at www.buildersvision.com.
Media contact:
Polina Lorelli
Email: polina@plcomms.uk
Whatsapp: +44 7943 0202 75
- Polina Lorelli
- Email: polina@plcomms.uk
- Whatsapp: +44 7943 0202 75
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