INVITATION ONLY
Deep Tech Connect is the Royal Academy of Engineering’s newest innovation event, bringing together leading voices from across academia, industry and the wider innovation ecosystem to explore technologies moving from research into commercialisation and real-world impact.
The event will showcase the breadth of innovation emerging from the Academy’s programmes, highlighting how engineering and research excellence can be translated into commercial success, societal benefit and economic growth.
What to expect:
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Discover technologies shaping our future and meet the founders, researchers, and engineers turning ambitious ideas into reality.
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Explore what it takes to move from discovery to impact, and how cutting-edge research is being translated, commercialised and scaled.
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Hear perspectives from leading voices in deep tech on the opportunities and challenges shaping the UK ecosystem.
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Explore the role of engineering-led innovation in addressing major national and global challenges, from climate resilience and advanced manufacturing to health and emerging technologies.
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Gain insight into the UK deep tech landscape, drawing on findings from the Academy’s State of UK Deep Tech 2026.
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Connect with the wider innovation ecosystem, including investors, industry leaders, funders, universities and innovation partners.
Through keynote addresses, panel discussions, networking and a live showcase spanning multiple Academy programmes, Deep Tech Connect offers a unique opportunity to experience the breadth of engineering innovation across the Academy in one place and connect with the people helping move it from invention to impact.
Photography/filming notice
Please note that photography/filming may take place during this event. All photographs and videos will be securely stored on the Academy’s servers and used for editorial, marketing and media use by the Academy and selected press or industry media. Please let us know if you do not agree to this processing. Please refer to our General Privacy Policy for more details.
Venue and accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Events team more than one week in advance of this event so that necessary arrangements can be made. Contact details: [email protected].
Further information about accessibility at Prince Philip House can be found at: https://raeng.org.uk/about-us/accessibility.
Diversity monitoring form
The Academy is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and one of our goals is to develop an engineering community fit for the future. To help us achieve this, we would like to collect some basic anonymous data about the event attendees. If you would like to help, please complete the diversity monitoring form by logging into your user account on our website and completing ‘Update my D&I data’.
Alex Depledge MBE
Alex Depledge MBE is a leading British technology entrepreneur, investor and advocate for innovation. She is the founder of Resi, the UK's largest residential architecture platform, and previously co-founded Hassle.com, one of Europe's fastest-growing home services marketplaces. An influential voice on entrepreneurship, Alex has advised government on supporting high-growth businesses and is a passionate champion of the UK's technology and start-up ecosystem
The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS FMedSci
Julia’s engineering experience began at a young age, through learning to fix her home electrical appliances. She moved from an academic career at Cambridge to a job in industry with Rolls- Royce, developing critical aeroengine materials.
Over her career, Julia developed a growing interest in climate change. She led the King Review on low-emissions transport for the government, which led to more official advisory positions and becoming a leading voice in the drive to combat climate change.
Professor Douglas Paul OBE FREng FRSE
Prof Douglas Paul OBE FRSE FREng is a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Glasgow. He is the Principal Investigator for the UK Hub for Quantum Enabled Position, Navigation and Timing and is a founder of the company Quantrologee commercialising quantum technology sensors and supply chain components.
He was the recipient of the Institute of Physics President's Medal in 2014 and was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 New Years Honours for services to quantum technology research. His research uses micro-fabrication and nano-fabrication approaches to produce practical quantum technology systems for applications including position, navigation, timing, LiDAR, quantum imaging, memories, gravity imaging, sensing and secure communications. He is also an advisor to multiple UK Government Departments including being on the BIST College of Experts.
Dr Caroline Hargrove CBE FREng
Dr Caroline Hargrove CBE FREng is Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”) at Ceres, a leading developer of high efficiency fuel cell and green hydrogen technology. Caroline started her career as a lecturer in Engineering at Cambridge and then moved to McLaren Racing, where she pioneered the simulation of human-machine interaction leading the development of the first F1 simulator. Later she was a founding member of McLaren Applied Technologies, set up to exploit McLaren F1 expertise to new markets and became its CTO. She was also CTO of Babylon Health and a Non-Executive Director of Ceres for three years before joining as its CTO in 2021. Caroline is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and holds a PhD in Applied Mechanics from Cambridge. She received a CBE for services to Engineering in 2020.
Vanela Bushi
Vanela Bushi is a London-based investor and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience across life sciences, healthcare and deep tech, spanning early-stage R&D through to commercial scale.
She is building Dendritic Capital, an early growth fund investing in the infrastructure and services layer of healthcare and life sciences, where computation meets the industry.
Vanela previously led Syneos Health's European team, part of a listed $5bn+ biopharma services business, and advised pharma and private equity clients on M&A at EY Parthenon and PwC, on transactions worth over $3bn. She started her investing career at the Wellcome Trust and IP Group, backing life sciences and healthcare startups.
Dr Simon Fabri
Simon is currently CEO at HMGCC (His Majesty's Government Communications Centre), in an organisation at the forefront of National Security Engineering.
Simon joined HMGCC in 2023, taking on the important role of leading the organisation’s product and engineering teams. In that role, and now as CEO, he is positively transforming the way in which HMGCC delivers its engineering - enabling vital tech to be used in the UK’s national security work.
Simon has a strong background in academia and industry. After starting out as an engineering lecturer, his career took him across telecoms, energy and automotive industries and then to Amazon before joining HMGCC’s leadership team.