Ploughshare and Leonardo partner to advance defence IP

Image courtesy Ploughshare

Formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, the partnership will leverage Ploughshare’s new services to unlock innovation with dual-use potential and drive impact across sectors.

These services aim to accelerate the journey of defence-derived intellectual property into civilian markets and deliver greater economic and strategic value for the UK.

Initially targeting the defence sector, the initiative offers tailored support to scale innovations into market-ready products, while navigating complex IP frameworks and security considerations. The services span the full innovation lifecycle – from discovery to deployment – and tap into Ploughshare’s established ecosystem across defence, government and civilian domains.

The launch comes as the UK’s Strategic Defence Review 2025 calls for a wartime pace of innovation and positions defence as a driver of national prosperity. Ploughshare’s offering empowers companies to transform breakthrough ideas into commercial success – strengthening sovereign capability and delivering impact for UK Plc.

Ploughshare CEO Hetti Barkworth-Nanton (above) explained: “Defence has given us game-changing tech – from the EpiPen to GPS. We believe the next breakthrough could already be sitting inside a UK defence company. Yet much of the intellectual property generated remains underexploited – trapped in early concepts, shelved projects, niche applications, or applied only to battlefield settings.

“Now is the time to unlock that latent value. By commercialising IP through licensing, defence companies can accelerate new product development, strengthen sovereign capability, and create new revenue streams that benefit both national security and UK Plc.”

Leonardo UK and Ploughshare will collaborate on accelerating the identification and commercialisation of defence intellectual property with dual-use potential through its newly launched services.

Hetti adds: “We’re delighted to have Leonardo on board. It’s a clear sign of industry demand when such an innovative company has decided to work with us. The company has a rich history of creating technologies that have huge dual-use potential, such as innovations that have transformed how search and rescue teams locate people in trouble. We’ll be working closely with them to identify what’s next.”

Professor Simon Harwood, Leonardo UK Capability Development Director, said: “The defence industry has always, at its core, been about securing the prosperity of the nation. Whilst Leonardo UK and the wider defence industry’s direct focus has been, and will remain on ensuring malevolent actors cannot disrupt our nations’ infrastructure, trade, and way of life, whilst protecting the lives of the service people who risk their lives in achieving this, there is much that we learn in our research and development that can directly benefit UK consumers’ lives.

“With over £400 million spent each year in R&D, Leonardo UK has and continues to develop a wealth of knowledge and proprietary capabilities in electro-optics, antenna designs, sensors, communication systems, cyber security, composite materials, autonomous systems, and much more. Our advanced technical capabilities provide the potential for us to positively impact beyond the world of defence. We are excited that, with the acceleration in investment in defence and pace of technological development, we can, in conjunction with the Technology and Growth Alliance, step-up the pace of the R&D derived benefits into UK Plc and directly into UK consumers’ lives.”

Ploughshare’s suite of services offer businesses:

• Uncover hidden value: Identify untapped IP within an organisation. The service offering helps defence companies collaborate with internal technical and R&D teams to discover high-value ideas and assets that could drive growth, enhance supply chain compliance, or be licensed to third parties.
• Prioritise innovations with the most potential: Quickly assess and prioritise promising IP. This service offering helps defence companies evaluate whether early-stage ideas could deliver greater commercial impact through licensing – with minimal upfront investment.
• Licence technologies out to market: Turn validated IP into revenue. A managed service that connects defence companies with third-party partners to license IP and take ideas to market through a robust commercialisation plan – delivering growth and impact while reducing internal resource strain and risk.
• Manage licensees: A service that offers outsourced management of third-party licensees, enabling companies to maximise return, maintain IP independence, while containing costs.
• Launch spin-outs: Launch disruptive ideas into new ventures – a managed service that helps defence companies spin out high-potential IP into standalone businesses, accelerating market entry while minimising operational distraction and risk.
• Outsource commercialisation: A comprehensive full-service offering that supports defence companies across the entire idea-to-growth journey – identifying, managing, and scaling opportunities. This service offering gives companies the option to fully outsource their entire technology transfer and IP licensing activities in this multi-year partnership, with minimal disruption and risk to current business operations.

With a 20-year track record of successfully spinning out companies and licensing innovations from government laboratories (creating 16 spinouts and 500 jobs, licensing over 150 technologies and delivered £125 million in GVA to the economy), Ploughshare is now making its expertise available to a wider audience, enabling more organisations to benefit from defence innovation and contribute to UK prosperity.