Innovate Cambridge

Last year we launched our #SPARK Incubator programme to fast-track early-stage ventures to investment readiness and support founders in the heart of the University of Cambridge. In this week’s #Mindsets Dr Bernard P.H. Cho reflects on his journey from clinical neuroscience to Med Arcade and the identity shift he experienced with the adoption of an #entrepreneurial mindset. Discover why the #Cambridge ecosystem and SPARK 1.0 was the catalyst he needed to move from over-planning to execution: https://lnkd.in/eeAApbn8 📸 by Maximilian Ge of #SPARK 1.0 cohort at King's College, Cambridge on Demo Day with Francesca Hodgson, MBA, Connor Farrell, Grigory McKain, and Winny Sanchita. More about #SPARK here: sparkatkings.com King's E-Lab | Innovate Cambridge

💫 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT - Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority at the UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit 1️⃣ Roundtable: Delivering the Fastest Growing Economy in the UK UK Nations & Regions Zone 📍 9 June | 10:00 - 11:00 | Wolfson 3 🔷 2️⃣ 'AI-enabled Science & Growth: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough' UK Nations & Regions Zone 📍 9 June | 15:30 - 17:00 | Wolfson 1 & 2 🔷 Join Mayor Paul Bristow with Kathryn Chapman Innovate Cambridge | Emma Salgard Cunha - Cambridge Enterprise | Seena Amidi | Kieran Borrett | Tabitha Goldstaub | Emma Salgard Cunha | Cambridge Enterprise, Cambridge Innovation Capital and the University of Cambridge as they discuss founders, investors and academics will discuss how to advance AI-enabled science and build the world’s leading AI and DeepTech scale-up ecosystem, doubling companies, investment and unicorn creation in Cambridge by 2035. 📣 Explore the full event programme, book individual sessions and secure your summit pass here: https://lnkd.in/eHCvV_zR 📍 The Royal Society, London 🗓️ 8-9 June ✨ Aligned with London Tech Week #ScienceSummit26 #InvestUKScience With Zayne Zhang Hacktron AI Boris Bolliet And GREAT Trade and Investment | Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Department for Business and Trade

Cambridge is 3rd in the world for innovation intensity. This week's reports highlight Cambridge's exceptional contribution to the UK's innovation economy. 🌍 Third in the world. First in Europe. Dealroom.co's Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2026 ranks Cambridge #3 by innovation density, behind only the Bay Area and Boston, and #1 in Europe. The per-capita measure weighs startup activity, enterprise value, unicorns and university links. Few places match Cambridge's depth in AI, quantum and life sciences, or its ability to translate that into high-growth businesses. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eh5_Amb6 🚀 Confidence, capital and growth. Cambridge Ahead's first Economic Overview shows the Government's bid to back UK innovation hotspots is working in Cambridge. The Greater Cambridge economy consistently outpaces national growth with Cambridge fuelling the knowledge economy across the East of England and beyond. Cambridge is by far the highest performing UK city for equity deals outside London, and Station Rd has more trillion-dollar tech companies than any other UK street - NVIDIA, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Sony all operate there. 👉 https://lnkd.in/efaHdjfv 💡 Creativity driving economic growth. New Bennett School of Public Policy research on the creative industries highlights culture, creativity, community and place as some of the UK's most valuable, and poorly measured, assets. Sustainable growth means rethinking how we measure, fund and support sectors that generate both economic and societal value. Read the 5 key recommendations: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eJSvZPSq At The Glasshouse 🔷 Amazon Web Services (AWS) were joined by Kiro for an agentic spec-driven workshop, leaving attendees with a practical workflow for building software. Amali de Alwis MBE, UAL Honorary Fellow 🔷 Cambridge City Council launched 'How Resilient is Cambridge?' drawing on six public evenings on food, flooding, energy, communications and community resilience. Katie Thornburrow Read the report 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNiniKWf Upcoming events 📅 3 June | Project Management Institute UK | 17:30-19:30 Keir Dixon on real-world lessons from delivering two of Cambridge's largest Passivhaus schemes for St John's College. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/eCStyxgB 📅 9 June | UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit - AI-enabled Science & Growth Showcase | 15:30-17:00, The Royal Society A panel uniting founders, investors and academics to double companies, investment and unicorn creation by 2035. 🎟️ https://luma.com/m949jeea 📅 9 June | Venture Café Cambridge Connect | 17:00-20:00 The One About Quantum: what it is, why it matters, and where it's going. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/eRMyZuZe 📅 12 June | Open Coffee Cambridge | 8:00-10:30 Strategic futurist Tamar Kasriel and Pam Garside on decision-making in uncertain times. In collaboration with CAMentrepreneurs. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/eTjBz7kD Thanks to Railpen for continued support of The Glasshouse.

One month to go to enter the Business Weekly newspaper Awards. This year, we’re proud to introduce a new category in collaboration with Cambridge Innovation Capital - recognising companies setting a new standard for innovation. The awards will be presented on Wednesday 16 September at Queens' College, Cambridge. Explore all categories: https://lnkd.in/gB_Bs-9M Apply for the Cambridge Science & Technology Torchbearer Award: https://lnkd.in/eEN9gCma 📅 Deadline: 30 June 2026 #BusinessWeeklyAwards

The Dealroom.co 2026 Global Tech Ecosystem Index released today ranks Cambridge #3 globally as the world’s most concentrated innovation ecosystem, behind only Boston and the Bay Area and #1 for startup founders per capita - reinforcing Cambridge’s position as a globally significant centre for science and technology innovation. Cambridge continues to punch well above its weight, ranking among the world’s leading clusters for founder density and early-stage venture capital raised per capita. The strength of the University of Cambridge spinout pipeline and the clear pathway for companies to grow and scale through Cambridge Enterprise, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and Cambridge Innovation Capital and all other key players based here, including Cambridge Angels, Parkwalk, Amadeus (and many, many more) combined with leadership in deep tech, AI and life sciences, underpins this success. Cambridge Can. And collectively, Cambridge will. Kathryn Chapman John Aston Jim Glasheen Robert Pollock Andy Neely Kristin Anne Rutter Tabitha Goldstaub Rob Bridge Michael Barrett Yvonne Barnett Michael Anstey Hermann Hauser Cambridge City Council Cambridge University Health Partners Cambridge Judge Business School Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Anglia Ruskin University

Cambridge University Health Partners is looking forward to welcoming Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to Cambridge next Tuesday 2 June!   We are an Activation Partner of ARIA, as part of Cambridge NeuroWorks which was established to accelerate the development of innovative neurotechnologies.    ARIA is now beginning to recruit the next cohort of Programme Directors and will be in Cambridge to share how they operate and what they look for in ambitious ideas and people - from individuals and startups to industry and academia.   You should attend the event to: 🔹Explore funding opportunities 🔹Explore collaborations  🔹Explore leadership opportunities Find out more about becoming a future ARIA Programme Director - https://lnkd.in/eYKc-S43 🕓  4–7pm 📍 Ray Dolby Centre, Cavendish Laboratory, CB3 0US, Cambridge   This event is open to anyone interested in learning more about how ARIA works and funds R&D - from PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to group leaders, founders, research managers and innovation leaders.   For the full event schedule and to register, visit https://luma.com/tjeldahg Babraham Research Campus | Cambridge Network | Cambridge Neuroscience | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) | Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge | Milner Therapeutics Institute | University of Cambridge | Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge | Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge| Vellos

Cambridge isn't just doing the research - it's building the place to scale it. 🚉 Connectivity catches up with ambition Cambridge South station opens Sunday 28 June. Serving the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe's largest medical research hub, it's expected to welcome 1.8 million passengers a year with fast trains to London & nine trains an hour to the city centre. The Campus contributes £4.7bn to the UK economy annually, forecast to reach £18.2bn by 2050. The station will be transformational, supporting economic growth, jobs and community. 👉 https://lnkd.in/e4UtuEWY   🏗️ A bold vision for the UK's oldest science park Cambridge Science Park has submitted its year masterplan with a vision to triple the Park's economic output to more than £3bn annually & create up to 20,000 new high-skilled jobs across life sciences, technology and clean energy. It also sets out a new public Park of Science: green spaces, lakes, cafés & improved walking, cycling & transport links. For more than 55 years the Park has helped shape technologies that changed billions of lives - driving innovation, opportunity and growth for decades to come.. 👉 https://lnkd.in/erXiH_jb 🤝 Making the case at UKREiiF This week we joined #TeamCambridgeshireandPeterborough at UKREiiF to set out the region's role in the UK's innovation economy. Our Executive Director Kathryn Chapman spoke across four sessions: ‘REiiF 2026 highlighted the remarkable momentum building across Cambridge, the Ox-Cam corridor, & The Cambridge x Manchester Partnership. Alongside honest discussions about the challenges ahead, there was a strong sense of optimism around the UK’s global strengths in talent, research, & innovation.’ At The Glasshouse 🔷 Venture Café Cambridge Connect explored Focused Research Organisations, for scientific problems too big for a single lab but too early for a startup to tackle, with Convergent Research, ARIA and Meridial. Thanks to speakers Kristin Ellis, Corey Ruzicano, Sarah Bohndiek, Agnieszka Iwasiewicz-Wabnig FRSA and Mehmet Fisek. 🔷 Founders Growth Community - An insightful panel sharing guidance on what founders should look for when selecting directors, and how the right board strengthens founder & executive capabilities. Upcoming events 📅27 May | Agentic Spec-Driven Development with Kiro | 10:00–16:00 Amazon Web Services (AWS) host a hands-on workshop on spec-driven development with Kiro, their agentic IDE that turns prompts into specs, code, docs and tests. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/eCJyBCPH 📅 28 May |Report Launch | 17:00–19:00 Find out more about The Cambridge Room's 'How Resilient is Cambridge?' report at their launch. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/etwBA6QN 📅29 May | Serendipity Table | 09:00–17:00 In collaboration with CAMentrepreneurs Cambridge, inspired by David Cleevely CBE FREng FIET’s book ‘Serendipity: It Doesn’t Happen By Accident.’ Sign up below. 🎟️ https://lnkd.in/e8hbNS6h Thanks to Railpen for continued support

UKREiiF has reinforced more than ever that collaboration is what makes Cambridge's ecosystem work. Across the region, partners are working together with an unprecedented level of alignment and shared purpose. Universities, hospitals, local government, industry and civic organisations are coalescing around a common goal: to deliver the homes, infrastructure and opportunities needed to support both innovation and thriving communities. Within Cambridge, The Cambridge x Manchester Partnership and work across the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor show what that looks like in practice. Our Executive Director, Kathryn Chapman has been making the case across three panels this week. Partnership will be critical if the UK is to compete globally in the industries that define the future. Another great step forward for Cambridge, the region and the UK.