Sheffield’s Research Retold set for international expansion with ‘key’ UK Steel Enterprise investment

A Sheffield-based business which takes complex research documents and turns them into easily digestible summaries is on track for international expansion after winning a competition to receive a £25k equity investment from UK Steel Enterprise.

Research Retold, which was established in April of last year, is set to receive the funds following participation in a 12-week development initiative as part of the Pilot Y-Accelerator startup programme.

The company saw off seven other regionally-based entrepreneurs to secure the investment.

Mihaela Gruia, Research Retold’s founder, said: “We summarise the key findings of reports and visually represent them in a way that resonates with audiences beyond the academic community.

“We aim to bring together academics, research communicators and graphic designers in order to make research clear and beautiful. In doing so, our goal is to establish Research Retold as a trusted partner of researchers and research-driven institutions in the UK and beyond.”

She went on to say that the £25k investment would be ‘key’ to ensuring that growth targets are reached over the next year.

Mihaela added: “By completion of the first year we plan to deliver 109 projects and for this we will recruit 25 new associates from within the region. We then hope to double our output and expand our associate network in year two.

“The plan for year three is to develop an associate management plan to cover most research-intensive universities in the UK, at which point we will be looking to develop partnerships with research-oriented individuals and organisations outside of the UK as well.”

The UK Steel Enterprise Y-Accelerator initiative is a collaboration between private and public sector organisations including Rotherham Investment and Development Office (RiDO), Sheffield City Region Growth Hub, UK Steel Enterprise, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Sheffield and a number of private firms.

The judging panel at the final pitch event, which took place at Sheffield Hallam University’s Owen Building, consisted of representatives from UK Steel Enterprise and the Sheffield City Region Growth Hub.

Talking about the Y-Accelerator initiative, Mihaela also commented: “I found the Y-Accelerator to be an extremely useful experience because it gave me the focus and dedicated space and time to work on developing the business.

“I found it particularly helpful to have the RIDO team - Richard Keates, Julia Millea and Amanda Parris - available for brainstorming, critique and encouragement. Also, being able to work with Jamie Veitch - a marketing specialist from Keep Your Fork - was instrumental in polishing the presentation for the pitch day and, crucially, developing a marketing plan for Research Retold that underpins our growth strategy.”

Launched in 1975, UK Steel Enterprise supports the economic development of steel industry areas. To this day it has helped over 6,700 businesses with investments upwards of £91m, and those businesses have created over 77,000 jobs.

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