UCLB’s Social Ventures; tackling public health challenges from Diabetes to obesity

It’s perhaps surprising to learn that when it comes to improving health, commercialising UCL’s academic research extends beyond biopharmaceuticals or diagnostics.  

Many UCLB spinouts, founded by UCL academics are pioneering health interventions specifically aimed at improving health and wellbeing within communities.  

Termed ‘Social Ventures’ these spinouts aim to commercialise ideas, often promoting healthier lifestyles for children, offsetting the risk of diabetes and equipping women with transparent health information. When it comes to the big public health challenges affecting communities and individuals, public health is in the spotlight once more, following the UCL Health of the Public Annual Symposium 2025, which took place on 29 April at Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. The discipline centres around improving communities’ overall health. Instead of dealing with only individuals, the promotion of healthy activities and social wellbeing is the focus.  

This multi-disciplinary field requires diverse knowledge sets, and to meet some of the challenges in public health, UCL academics have translated their research into real-world solutions to meet a wide range of community challenges. The following UCLB Social Ventures are making a real difference, today: 

 

TrimTots: promoting healthy eating through play  

One of the most pressing health challenges is childhood obesity. TrimTots aims to combat this issue by engaging families with young children in immersive, healthy eating programmes. Using puppetry, interactive workshops, and play-based learning, TrimTots creates positive and lasting health impacts for young participants, helping to prevent obesity and its associated complications.  

 

Wellspring: tackling consent  

Wellspring’s online platform allows women and their families with an immersive, interactive and scalable resource which provides accurate, up-to-date and evidence-based information about procedures and processes in women’s health. For doctors and healthcare professionals, Wellspring helps them improve and supplement their practice by ensuring that women are aware of the material risks involved in treatment and are aware of reasonable alternatives.    

 

Help Diabetes:  

According to Diabetes UK, four million people in the UK are living with diabetes, with about 90% of these suffering from type 2 diabetes, which is preventable and treatable through lifestyle changes. As UCLB’s licensee, NHS England (NHSE)’s Healthy Living programme has significantly increased its user numbers since its inception, reaching 43,116 individuals as of November last year. (A UCLB licensee tackling diabetes via prevention and treatment ) 

HeLP-Diabetes, developed by a group of academics and clinicians led by the late UCL Professor Elizabeth Murray, was later licensed to NHSE through UCLB’s social venture support offer and became known as Healthy Living.  

Healthy Living is a web-based structured education programme that supports people to learn more about type 2 diabetes and improve their health and wellbeing. It is available nationally, and for free, for people living with the condition.  

UCLB has stepped up its dedication to the creation of social ventures, helping found London Social Ventures, which sees some of London’s leading universities, businesses, and civic organisations coming together to support enterprises that prioritise social impact over profit.  

Further information:

Discover UCLB Social Ventures 

Meet our Social Ventures Team 

London Social Ventures