About us

We move discoveries from lab to market by de-risking breakthrough research, building scalable ventures, and creating investible pipelines.

Why we exist

Bright Arena closes the gap between discovery and impact. We partner with researchers, ventures, and organisations to de-risk early opportunities, build scalable ventures, and create pipelines of investable projects.

How we work

Our approach is structured, embedded, and scalable. We work shoulder-to-shoulder with researchers, ventures, and organisations, using proven frameworks to de-risk opportunities and accelerate progress.

About Dougal Edwards

Bright Arena was founded by Dougal Edwards, a strategist and venture builder with deep experience across multinationals, R&D institutions and early-stage startups.

He is recognised for his ability to connect worlds—linking research, industry, and capital to unlock new ways to deliver growth. Using proprietary methods distilled from working directly with more than 5,000 entrepreneurs, company innovators, and researchers, clients accelerate results in speed, scale, and impact.

He founded Bright Arena to scale this work nationally through a blend of community, mentorship, coaching, and training for people determined to see their work make a difference.

Principles we operate by

Embedded

In-lab. In-team. In-the-trenches, not from the sidelines.

Structured

Proven frameworks that reduce risk and accelerate progress.

Scalable

From capability to pipelines of investable ventures.

Recent Testimonials

Hear what others have to say about their Bright Arena experience

It has radically changed how I value my expertise and my work. I am no longer simply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with external partners, I have written proposals and pitched my ideas, securing and leveraging funds to increase the scale and scope of the project.

It has absolutely super-charged our project! In a 6 month period we have gone from no commercialisation plan at all to a strategy that is guided by many conversations with big pharma and VC. This has given us opportunities to have an impact far beyond anything we had envisaged.

It helped me develop my project idea and develop entrepreneurial mindset, and also helped me improve skills for my current role. Dougal and the team are very engaging, supportive, responsive and enthusiastic and that keeps me motivated and more eager to have my project succeed.

This is fantastic, it carefully walked us through how an idea can be transformed into start-up over only a few months. The content was engaging, helpful and practical. I felt like Bright Arena was a space where I could be ambitious, and road test my strategies with like-minded scientists.

The challenged the way I thought about the potential value and impact of my research. It provided a framework to transform what was in essence a 'pie-in-the-sky' idea into a feasible project with tangible objectives. It has transformed my approach to translating my research.

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