̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Maxwell Centre

Emissions-free flying takes off at Cambridge Climate Challenge

plc32 — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:11:42 +0000

A biology PhD candidate and an early career aerospace engineer researcher won the 2025 Cambridge Zero Climate Challenge for turning waste into sustainable jet fuel

Cambridge joins forces with ARIA to fast-track radical new technologies to revolutionise brain health

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:57:22 +0000

̽��ֱ��collaboration, which includes researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, aims to accelerate progress on new neuro-technologies, including miniaturised brain implants designed to treat depression, dementia, chronic pain, epilepsy and injuries to the nervous system.

Neurological and mental health disorders will affect four in every five people in their lifetimes, and present a greater overall health burden than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. For example, 28 million people in the UK are living with chronic pain and 1.3 million people with traumatic brain injury.

Neuro-technology – where technology is used to control the nervous system - has the potential to deliver new treatments for these disorders, in much the same way that heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and spinal implants have transformed medicine in recent decades.

̽��ֱ��technology can be in the form of electronic brain implants that reset abnormal brain activity or help deliver targeted drugs more effectively, brain-computer interfaces that control prosthetic limbs, or technologies that train the patient’s own cells to fight disease. ARIA’s Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space is exploring ways to make the technology more precise, less invasive, and applicable to a broader range of diseases.

Currently, an implant can only interact with large groups of neurons, the cells that transmit information around the brain. Building devices that interact with single neurons will mean a more accurate treatment. Neuro-technologies also have the potential to treat autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and type-1 diabetes.

̽��ֱ��science of building technology small enough, precise enough and cheap enough to make a global impact requires an environment where the best minds from across the UK can collaborate, dream up radical, risky ideas and test them without fear of failure.

Professor George Malliaras from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering is one of the project leaders. “Miniaturised devices have the potential to change the lives of millions of people currently suffering from neurological conditions and diseases where drugs have no effect,” he said. “But we are working at the very edge of what is possible in medicine, and it is hard to find the support and funding to try radical, new things. That is why the partnership with ARIA is so exhilarating, because it is giving brilliant people the tools to turn their original ideas into commercially viable devices that are cheap enough to have a global impact.”

Cambridge’s partnership with ARIA will create a home for original thinkers who are struggling to find the funding, space and mentoring needed to stress-test their radical ideas. ̽��ֱ��three-year partnership is made up of two programmes:

̽��ֱ��Fellowship Programme (up to 18 fellowships)

Blue Sky Fellows – a UK-wide offer - we will search the UK for people from any background, with a radical idea in this field and the plan and personal skills to develop it. ̽��ֱ��best people will be offered a fellowship with the funding to test their ideas in Cambridge rapidly. These Blue Sky Fellows will receive mentorship from our best medical, scientific and business experts and potentially be offered accommodation at a Cambridge college. We will be looking for a specific type of person to be a Blue Sky Fellow. They must be the kind of character who thinks at the very edge of the possible, who doesn’t fear failure, and whose ideas have the potential to change billions of lives, yet would struggle to find funding from existing sources. Not people who think outside the box, more people who don’t see a box at all.

Activator Fellows - a UK-wide offer - those who have already proved that their idea can work, yet need support to turn it into a business, will be invited to become Activator Fellows. They will be offered training in entrepreneurial skills including grant writing, IP management and clinical validation, so their innovation can be ready for investment.

̽��ֱ��Ecosystem Programme

̽��ֱ��Ecosystem Programme is about creating a vibrant, UK-wide neurotechnology community where leaders from business, science, engineering, academia and the NHS can meet, spark ideas and form collaborations. This will involve quarterly events in Cambridge, road trip events across the UK and access to the thriving online Cambridge network, Connect: Health Tech.

“This unique partnership is all about turning radical ideas into practical, low-cost solutions that change lives,” said Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Health Partners. “Cambridge is fielding its best team to make this work and using its networks to bring in the best people from all over the UK. From brilliant scientists to world-leading institutes, hospitals and business experts, everyone in this collaboration is committed to the ARIA partnership because, by working together, we all see an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference in the world.”

“Physical and mental illnesses and diseases that affect the brain such as dementia are some of the biggest challenges we face both as individuals and as a society,” said Dr Ben Underwood, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. “This funding will bring together different experts doing things at the very limits of science and developing new technology to improve healthcare. We hope this new partnership with the NHS will lead to better care and treatment for people experiencing health conditions.”

Cambridge partners in the project include the Departments of Engineering and Psychiatry, Cambridge Neuroscience, the Milner Therapeutics Institute, the Maxwell Centre, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Health Partners (CUHP), Cambridge Network, the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Vellos.

A team from across the Cambridge life sciences, technology and business worlds has announced a multi-million-pound, three-year collaboration with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK government’s new research funding agency.

Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Illustration of human brain

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Cambridge and SAS launch partnership in AI and advanced analytics to accelerate innovation in the healthcare sector

skbf2 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:41:30 +0000

̽��ֱ��SAS Advanced Analytics Hub will embed SAS experts and its AI platform capabilities into the ̽��ֱ��, enabling targeted collaboration with leading researchers and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Based on the Cambridge West campus, the Hub will have capacity to recruit and support several high-quality, high-impact academic research projects and promising early-stage startups in the health-tech space, providing their innovative ideas with extra momentum.

̽��ֱ��partners have already demonstrated the effectiveness of the collaboration in addressing an important healthcare challenge. A ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge-led project on kidney transplants, PITHIA, developed an AI-based decision support approach using SAS’s dynamic analytics platform. It is being used to automate the process of scoring biopsies for kidneys to better identify those organs that can be used for transplantation. ̽��ֱ��aim is to increase the number of transplants and improve the function of those kidneys used. This has the potential to save lives and transform the quality of life for more than 100 people each year who would otherwise require dialysis, as well as saving the NHS millions of pounds annually.

This collaboration was initiated and led by Dr Alex Samoshkin (Deputy Head, Office for Translational Research, School of Clinical Medicine) who facilitates interactions between clinicians and researchers from the Biomedical Campus with researchers in science and technology working with the Maxwell Centre. Dr Samoshkin said: “In 2018 I supported the PITHIA project led by Prof. Gavin Pettigrew, looking to optimise qualification of kidneys for transplantation, for which SAS turned out to be the perfect industrial partner. We demonstrated that synergy between the ̽��ֱ�� and SAS was instrumental in accelerating the process of transitioning from ideas to the clinic.”

This initial success paved the way for a more ambitious partnership between Cambridge and SAS. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge team visited the SAS headquarters at Cary, NC, USA in June 2023 to discuss collaboration opportunities with the SAS senior leadership team including Dr Jim Goodnight, co-founder and CEO. Today, the SAS Advanced Analytics Hub at the Maxwell Centre begins building a pipeline of new collaborative projects with potential to improve health outcomes for millions of patients around the world.

̽��ֱ��Maxwell Centre Director, Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig, commented: “We are excited to interface Cambridge’s world-class research and innovation with SAS’ leading expertise in advanced analytics and AI forming a partnership for societal good. We are starting with a strong focus on healthcare and will build momentum to support future interdisciplinary projects on sustainability and social equality.”

Roderick Crawford, Senior Vice President, SAS Northern Europe, commented: “There are many examples we’re seeing of how AI can have a truly transformational effect, not just on businesses, but in areas such as healthcare and society as a whole. We’re delighted to deepen our relationship with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge through this partnership, and there is enormous potential when you consider the additional expertise our partners, such as Microsoft, and customers, such as AstraZeneca, can provide.”

̽��ֱ��Maxwell Centre at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and SAS, leaders in data and AI, are launching a partnership aimed at accelerating healthcare innovation through enhanced access to advanced analytics.

Maxwell Centre, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Yes

“Elegant” algae solution wins Cambridge Zero student Climate Challenge

plc32 — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:02:58 +0000

Team AlgaeSorb’s winning pitch persuaded a panel of innovation experts to award them the top prize of £1500 for an idea, which judge Dr Nicky Dee, Founder of climate-focused venture capital group Carbon13, described as “elegant”.

“ ̽��ֱ��Climate Challenge was an incredible opportunity to not only meet like-minded students, but learn invaluable skills on crafting and designing impact-driven projects,” said Team AlgaeSorb’s Anish Chaluvadi, a Gates-Cambridge Scholar and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology PhD student at King’s College.

̽��ֱ��team also includes Nanoscience and Nanotechnology PhD student Timothy Lambden (Girton College) and Tristan Spreng, a Natural Sciences Masters’ student (Trinity College) and President of the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Energy Technology Society.

“ ̽��ֱ��Climate Challenge was one of the most exciting and well-organised events I got to attend during my four years at Cambridge," Spreng said. "From the breadth of speakers at the seminar sessions to exchanging ideas with other participants during the launch and final events, it was a truly amazing experience.”

Eight teams gathered in the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) newly retro-fitted Entopia building to pitch ideas ranging from using machine learning to create algorithms for flood risk to crunching satellite data for locating wall-mounted solar panels.

̽��ֱ��judging panel also included serial entrepreneur Simon Hombersley, Professor Jaideep Prabhu, the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise at the Cambridge Judge Business School, Lindsay Hooper, Executive Director of CISL and Chris Gibbs from the ̽��ֱ��’s technology transfer unit Cambridge Enterprise.

Dr Dee said AlgaeSorb was a brilliant entry by a mixed team, which drew on different country experiences and expertise across chemistry, physics and materials sciences.

“As a result they developed an elegant solution to tackle methane in the Global South where other landfill solutions are not available and in a way that supports the local communities,” she said.

In between pitches, experts such as Professor Prabhu and Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh offered insights on sustainable innovation and its importance in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Dr Amy Munro-Faure, Cambridge Zero’s Head of Education and Student Engagement led a quick game that mixed teams for spontaneous pitches, which resulted in a wild melange of ideas that included saving dolphins and travelling through time.

̽��ֱ��eight-week Climate Challenge programme is run in partnership with CISL Canopy, Carbon13, Energy IRC, Cambridge Enterprise, the Maxwell Centre and sponsored by Moda Living. Competing teams undertake training and develop early-stage proposals for solutions to tackle climate challenges in innovative ways.

Each year there is a new theme. This year’s theme, “A Just Transition”, asked teams to consider the social impacts of their climate solutions.

Two runner-up teams were awarded a prize of £750. FireSight, formed of Jovana Knezevic and Onkar Gulati, pitched a risk assessment and consulting service to address global wildfires using remote sensing and machine learning. Carolina Pulignani and Shannon A. Bonke of Wastevalor fascinated the judges with their technology that converts waste into methanol.

Team Reckon, made up of Aparna Holenarasipura Sreedhara and Akanksha Sahay, won the Audience Choice Award for their software as a service platform entry. ̽��ֱ��software gives organisations the ability to measure the social impact of their climate transition plans.

Judges said the Climate Challenge was a powerful demonstration of how innovation and the determination to tackle climate change permeate every level of the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� community.

“Helping build the entrepreneurial mindset in the ̽��ֱ�� ecosystem is critical to the innovation agenda and particularly crucial for a true net zero where over half the innovations needed for 2050 are still in the lab,” Gibbs said.

A team of student entrepreneurs who see algae as a potential business solution for reducing methane emissions from landfill and waste-water sites won the 2023 Cambridge Zero Climate Challenge after a nail-biting competition.

̽��ֱ��climate challenge was one of the most exciting and well-organised events I got to attend during my four years at Cambridge

Tristan Spreng

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Harnessing the power of innovation: the ̽��ֱ��’s Impulse programme

skbf2 — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:55:16 +0000

At the height of the pandemic, McKinsey published a report on innovating in a crisis. More than three quarters of the senior executives surveyed thought that COVID would provide significant opportunities for growth. However, fewer than 30 per cent of them felt confident that they are ready for the changes they see coming. ̽��ֱ��area in which they felt the least equipped was ‘delivering net new growth opportunities'.

Innovation, the report contends, is critical for a company’s long-term survival. But large companies rely on rules, systems and processes in order to keep thousands of employees pointing in roughly the same direction. How, in this context, can you create a culture in which innovation and entrepreneurship thrive? It’s not enough to recruit talented people who have bright ideas. They need to be encouraged to ask challenging questions, to explore new possibilities and, above all, to apply entrepreneurial thinking. Intrapreneurs, like entrepreneurs, need a supportive environment to maintain and strengthen their innovative thinking as well as the resources required to support the success of new growth opportunities.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s Impulse Programme, run out of the Maxwell Centre, helps people and organisations develop the kind of ‘intrapreneurial’ mindset that will be vital for finding and exploiting new growth opportunities.

̽��ֱ��twelve-week programme is intended both for ‘intrapreneurs’ and ‘entrepreneurs’. They learn the same principles but customised to their respective situations. By the end of the programme, intrapreneurs will have a business case they can present to executives and business founders will have a fully articulated commercialisation plan. Both will have been thoroughly tested with a diverse group of senior level mentors, investors, experts and peers from different disciplines, industries and countries.

A collaborative mindset is key

No matter how good an idea is, it takes a team to make it happen. Learning how to create effective innovation teams that can bring together technology specialists with business and operations professionals, working across countries and cultures, is at the heart of the Impulse Programme. When we select participants for the course, in addition to clever ideas and passion in business, we are looking for this mix of diverse background, expertise and industry knowledge among them, so that everyone gets a real experience of working with people who have different skill- and mind-sets.

It is not always a comfortable process. People are challenged – and they have to learn how to handle uncertainties and their emotions when that happens, as well as take on board what they have learnt and move forward.

Phil O’Donovan, founder of Cambridge-based semiconductor company CSR and mentor on the course, explained in a recent article: “In the same way that quality control can’t be added at the last minute, like a coat of paint, innovation is the same. It must permeate the organisation. An ability to continuously learn from others is a skill that is key to innovative thinking.”

̽��ֱ��length of the Impulse Programme is carefully considered. It’s long enough to build strong relationships, whether that is with mentors or the other innovators taking part and provides sufficient time to reflect on the new business idea and refine it as necessary. But it’s short enough to maintain momentum – and for the participants to operate at a high level of emotional intensity during a steep learning curve experience without becoming too exhausted.

Creating a high value network

For intrapreneurs, connecting to the wider innovation network is vital: it helps them find new talent, new ideas and new opportunities for collaboration and growth. ̽��ֱ��Impulse Programme not only connects its participants to each other but also to world-class mentors: serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business angels from the Cambridge Cluster with very different backgrounds, technology expertise and coaching and mentoring styles. With such a broad range of mentors, we can find the best match for each participant.

We have around 120 contributors from the Cambridge innovation ecosystem sharing their knowledge and expertise. With an annual intake of just 40-50 participants, it’s a very different format compared to similar programmes which tend to have more attendees than contributors. This ratio means that participants can meet and directly work with people who can provide a wide range of perspectives.

Networking is a key part of Impulse. Along with the business case that the participants develop with support from mentors, many find that the value they get from the programme is the connections they make. ̽��ֱ��networking sessions allow people to learn from each other and to continue to do so after the programme has finished. According to our Alumni Survey, 70 per cent of respondents said they were still in contact with their mentor and 64 per cent said they had developed between two and seven strong connections during their twelve weeks.

Having started the Impulse Programme in 2016, I never cease to be amazed by the ideas and passion of our participants and by seeing what our alumni – like quantum computing success story, RiverLane - go on to achieve.

There’s still time to apply for our 2022 Programme in April. Find out more here.

Yupar Myint, Head of Impulse Programme

February 2022

Read all our Business and Enterprise blog posts here

Maxwell Centre

Running water

skbf2 — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 11:08:50 +0000

Meet social enterprise founder, Francesca O'Hanlon whose tech start-up is partnering with local plumbing businesses to bring clean water to communities in Uganda.

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge launches roadmap to support future growth of life sciences cluster

cjb250 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 09:49:05 +0000

̽��ֱ��roadmap sets out a clear plan to create a bridge between two of Cambridge’s historical strengths — biomedical research and cutting-edge technology — and bring these specialisms together to develop new treatments and health tech with real world applications. ̽��ֱ��solutions in the roadmap are scalable beyond Cambridge and also applicable to other disciplines and sectors.

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge has a deep and rich history of discovery and collaboration, and its interdisciplinary environment is the perfect testbed for new models of innovation in the life sciences. Our roadmap sets out a plan to do just that and will ensure that Cambridge remains a global leader in health technology into the next generation.

“This will require us to pioneer new ways of working and creating connections between different institutions across disciplines, be they academic or private enterprise. Such a model has been proven to work at a small scale – our proposal in the roadmap is to scale this up and apply it across the cluster and beyond.”

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� sits at the heart of the so-called ‘Cambridge cluster’, in which more than 5,300 knowledge-intensive firms employ more than 67,000 people and generate £18 billion in turnover. Cambridge has the highest number of patent applications per 100,000 residents in the UK.

̽��ֱ��mission of the ̽��ֱ�� is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. This includes cultivating and delivering excellent research and world-leading innovation and training of the next generation of highly skilled researchers and entrepreneurs, thereby underpinning the UK's economic growth and competitiveness.

Professor Tony Kouzarides, Director of the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��pandemic has clearly shown the importance of rapid innovation in healthcare. We are determined to harness the power of innovation, creativity and collaboration in Cambridge, and apply this towards solving some of the biggest medical challenges facing the country, and the world.”

̽��ֱ��Connect: Health Tech roadmap is a result of consultation with major stakeholders and a series of road-mapping workshops with the Cambridge community. It aims to shape the future success of the Cambridge cluster in health tech through a supportive and dynamic ecosystem that aligns with the needs of the community.

̽��ֱ��roadmap includes ambitious steps to build strong foundations for the Cambridge cluster for the next 20 years and will support the region's economic recovery post-pandemic and bring cutting-edge research, businesses and innovators together to be better prepared and connected for the future. Connect: Health Tech will also increase access to the Cambridge ecosystem extending reach and helping to level up growth and investment across the East of England and the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

One of the major recommendations in the report is to create and foster connectivity at the interface between medicine and technology and across sectors. This recommendation has been piloted by expanding the Cambridge cluster from a physical community to a digital one.

̽��ֱ��COVID19 pandemic has required the creation of an innovative model of access and navigation to Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��digital platform simplifies navigation of the Cambridge research community and enables new companies based all over the world to access expertise and knowledge across the ̽��ֱ�� with the aim of increasing inward investment in the life sciences. It also pilots an approach to navigation and connectivity that can be scaled up across the Arc and the UK. This new way of working will speed up the development of new healthcare innovations and technologies that the NHS will use in years to come.

Connect: Health Tech is a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� initiative funded by Research England. Connect: Health Tech UEZ has been created to build a highly effective interdisciplinary bridge between two Cambridge research hubs and beyond: the West science and technology hub anchored at the Maxwell Centre and South biomedical hub anchored at the Milner Therapeutics Institute. ̽��ֱ��bridge will bring together and integrate a community from across the ̽��ֱ��, research institutes, NHS, industry, investors, local and national Government, with a focus on medtech, digital health and therapeutics, to create opportunities that will transform ideas at the interface between medicine and technology into reality.

Read Creating a ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone for Cambridge across the life and physical sciences

Connect: Health Tech, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Enterprise Zone, has today launched a roadmap, ‘Creating a ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone for Cambridge across the life and physical sciences’, that examines the challenges faced in futureproofing and sustaining the growth of the life sciences cluster to maintain Cambridge as a global centre of excellence for health tech.

Cambridge has a deep and rich history of discovery and collaboration, and its interdisciplinary environment is the perfect testbed for new models of innovation in the life sciences

Andy Neely

AstraZeneca

Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Yes

Joining the dots

skbf2 — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:03:01 +0000

A new online community of researchers, businesses and healthcare providers is bringing the future of medicine one step closer.

Cambridge is one of the UK’s leading centres of life sciences and innovation. Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� and the world-leading research institutes on our doorstep have contributed to major breakthroughs in healthcare. Monoclonal antibodies, IVF and gene sequencing technologies are just some of the life-changing innovations to have emerged from the Cambridge Cluster.

̽��ֱ��need to connect

Cambridge is also a research powerhouse in maths, physics, computer science and engineering. ̽��ֱ��future of healthcare - earlier detection, better diagnostics, more-personalised medicine - lies where these disciplines meet. Maths and computer science, for example, are driving advances in AI which will help us to better understand biological processes (and hence where to target drugs), interrogate the vast genomic datasets that underpin personalised medicine and improve how clinical trials are run. Inventing new diagnostics and medical devices, using new materials and new processes such as additive manufacturing, needs both medical and engineering know-how.

There are plenty of examples of powerful interdisciplinary collaborations in the ̽��ֱ��, such as the new Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. But finding out who does what and connecting the right people across a complex ecosystem is not always easy. An already difficult task is made harder by the fact that researchers in different disciplines, executives in large companies, entrepreneurs and clinicians often talk a very different language and have different expectations of collaborative activities. Once connections have been made, therefore, it can be a challenge to convert them into projects which go on to have a ‘real-world’ impact.

A clear vision

Connect: Health Tech, a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone was set up in 2019 with funding from Research England expressly to bridge these interdisciplinary and inter-organisational gaps through a range of activities. A roadmapping exercise was carried out, using innovation management techniques developed at the ̽��ֱ��’s Institute for Manufacturing. Key stakeholders were brought together to identify the top five barriers to collaboration and the best ways to overcome them. ̽��ֱ��report, Creating a ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone for Cambridge across the life and physical sciences, will be published in June 2021.

Building a community

̽��ֱ��roadmap identified a clear need: a digital way of connecting and collaborating with people across the Cambridge ecosystem. A year later, we are delighted to be launching, a new, easy-to-navigate online community where the physical and life sciences can meet, along with entrepreneurs, large corporates, venture capitalists, science parks, National Health Service and member organisations. While focused on Cambridge initially, in time we hope that it will help community members forge connections further afield and expand the geographical boundaries of the ecosystem to create the right environment for ideas, start-ups, innovation and co-creation to thrive.

̽��ֱ��idea of Connect: Health Tech is to ‘join the dots’, to help researchers from different disciplines to find each other and other resources they might need, whether that is mentorship, skills, equipment, funding or physical space. For businesses, it’s about all that as well as being a welcoming, easy-to-navigate way into the complexity of the ̽��ֱ�� and the wider Cambridge cluster.

Getting successful collaborations off the ground often relies on the efforts of a relatively small group of people who have the knowledge and expertise to make connections – and broker relationships - across projects, disciplines and sectors. Connect: Health Tech brings these ‘super-connectors’ together in one place, creating a hugely powerful resource that, we hope, will both bring people together and provide the support they need to take collaborations forward.

How it works

Users will be able to find new contacts and networks and the community can post events, funding opportunities and jobs of interest. Special interest groups will encourage businesses and academics to discuss areas of common interest, with the topics chosen to catalyse inter-disciplinary interactions across the physical and life sciences. In time, the intention is that businesses will use these groups to share the challenges they face so the community can help solve real world problems

If Connect: Health Tech is successful it will benefit everyone – business, academia and patients. We want to see it leading to stronger and deeper interaction between physicists, material scientists, chemists, engineers, biotechnologists, biologists and clinicians across academia and industry leading to more clinically beneficial projects. And we hope it will strengthen the already rich pipeline of healthcare spin-outs, start-ups and SMEs that emerge and flourish in the Cambridge Cluster.

Please join us

With this blog comes an open invitation for businesses and individuals to join the online community and to get involved. ̽��ֱ��link is here. We will ask you a few short questions about why you want to join, what expertise you bring and what your expectations of it are. ̽��ֱ��platform is designed to enable informal connections and provide an easy way into Cambridge through individuals. It’s not a searchable website, it’s a live discussion forum with access to real people. I look forward to seeing and connecting with you there!

Dr Kathryn Chapman
Deputy Director of the Milner Therapeutics Institute
and ̽��ֱ�� Relationship Manager for the Cambridge-AstraZeneca Partnership

May 2021

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