Topic description and stories

People with enterprising minds make things happen, whether it’s starting a business or social venture or doing something new in established organisations.

In this series, we ask people how they’re trying to change the world and what it takes to turn an idea into a reality.

Jim Glasheen outside Cambridge Enterprise

Innovation and enterprise: lessons from the frontline

16 June 2025

The new head of Cambridge Enterprise reflects on innovation in Cambridge and what he's learnt from a career spent founding and building successful life science businesses.

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The art of partnerships

12 Feb 2025

Tammy Dougan on why it's so important that universities work with industry to get fundamental science out of the lab and into the real world.

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Kathryn Chapman.

Hitting the right note for innovation in Cambridge

17 Oct 2024

Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge, on the secrets of successful innovation and her ambitious plans for innovation in...

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Diarmuid O'Brien

Harnessing the power of innovation

04 Jun 2024

Diarmuid O'Brien, the University's new Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation on what makes Cambridge such an enterprising place and what we can achieve...

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Carmen Palacios-Berraquero

Quantum leap

21 Mar 2024

Meet the brilliant founder and CEO of Nu Quantum, a Cambridge spinout paving the way for a new era of quantum computing.

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Umaima Ahmad, CEO of 52North

Caring for cancer patients

31 Jan 2024

Meet Umaima Ahmad, co-founder and CEO of a Cambridge spinout that aims to keep chemotherapy patients safe from infection while sparing them...

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Joao Costa surrounded by children in Guinea-Bissau

Making peace

08 Nov 2023

Enterprising Mind João Costa has turned a philosophical idea into a practical tool for resolving real-world conflict.

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Inclusion, innovation... and cocktail curation

22 Aug 2023

Co-founder and CEO of Start Codon, Jason Mellad on helping healthcare start-ups thrive and why inclusion and diversity will change the world.

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Taking care of mental health

09 Feb 2023

Psychiatrist, Professor of Neurotechnology and 'Enterprising Mind', Sabine Bahn has founded two companies both with the aim of helping people with...

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Dr Jagjit Singh Srai.

Comfortable with the uncomfortable

09 Nov 2022

Dr Jag Srai on finding unexpected ways around a problem and putting new supply chain thinking into practice with global companies.

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Live long and prosper

14 Jul 2022

Meet Daniel Ives, co-founder of a Cambridge start-up with one big ambition: to put an end to ageing and the diseases that come with it.

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Powering a green revolution

23 May 2022

Dr Giorgia Longobardi, founder and CEO of University spinout Cambridge GaN Devices, is harnessing the extraordinary properties of superconductor...

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Deep learning and disease detection

07 Apr 2022

Marcel Gehrung, co-founder and CEO of rapidly growing Cambridge biotech company, Cyted, on revolutionising disease diagnostics and the challenges of...

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