What was the “spark” that inspired you to co-found the King’s Entrepreneurship Lab back in 2021?
Believing that entrepreneurship takes many forms, we wanted to expand entrepreneurial education beyond the Cambridge Judge Business School and to create an inclusive community of entrepreneurial minds at the heart of the University of Cambridge. Our goal is to welcome anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit and an eagerness to challenge the status quo and reimagine the world.
The E-Lab’s stated aim is to equip students with entrepreneurial skills and to empower aspiring innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders. How exactly does it achieve this?
From the very beginning, the E-Lab has been about creating a programme, a space and a community where innovative thinkers have the opportunity to develop the skills needed to thrive in today's dynamic business world. It is a place where entrepreneurship should be understood as a mindset rather than a specific activity. This is important because these mindsets shape how we perceive the world and approach challenges. The E-Lab achieves its purpose through a broad spectrum of activities spanning both commercial and social ventures.
Can you give us some specific examples of those activities?
One example is our Speaker Series, which has proven very successful. It consists of talks, presentations, fireside chats, panel discussions and other events at which leading figures from academia, industry, politics and other fields share their insights, lessons learned, best practices and cutting-edge knowledge. Speakers hosted over the last three years include company founders and CEOs, heads of state, Nobel Laureates, Oscar winners, scientists, policymakers and journalists. We also offer scholarships and mentoring, run workshops, hold an annual hackathon and organise exhibitions and conferences that attract visitors from around the globe. And last but not least, we create ample space for networking and social events to enable participants to make friends with E-Lab members and entrepreneurially minded peers across the wider Cambridge community.
Which type of students does the E-Lab seek to support?
The E-Lab welcomes students from all disciplines and backgrounds – undergraduates, masters and PhD students or research associates. For example, we offer a one-year extracurricular residential programme for students from across Collegiate Cambridge to take innovative ideas forward in the context of social, corporate or associative ventures. We also encourage school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand how to launch an enterprise with our annual essay competition. At the other end of the scale, we run an E-Lab Research Associate scheme where postdoctoral researchers can devote one day a week to entrepreneurial activities that may be related to their field of research or something else – from the commercialisation of intellectual property and cultural endeavours to charitable and social initiatives.
How important is your collaboration with external partners such as EFG?
Let me give you an example of the benefits: Every year, we hold a week-long residential training programme for students from different disciplines, such as engineering and computer science, economics, industrial systems and even history of art. Thanks to our collaboration with EFG, we have been able to expand the range of activities and number of students we can take on the programme. Our collaboration has also enabled us to roll out our autumn training programme for the wider collegiate University of Cambridge, making a huge impact!
