ICURe Engage is a six-week, part-time taster programme to find potential beneficiaries of research, determine value propositions, and consider entrepreneurship as a route to getting societal impact and as a career choice.

The ICURe Engage programme will train research students and technicians (from all disciplines) and provide them with the space and opportunity to empower pioneers to explore entrepreneurship as a viable and exciting career choice and accelerate the growth of their start-ups.

Who can apply?

ICURe Engage is open to research students and technicians (all disciplines) from all UK universities and PSRE (Public Sector Research Establishments).

What’s included?

• Two-day training bootcamp delivered by mentors, introducing you to ideation, design thinking, and value proposition canvas.
• Testing of the value proposition by engaging a sample of potential innovation beneficiaries.
• Mentor and peer group support.
• Consideration of how an impact-delivering venture may be funded.

Learn more about ICURe Engage

Upcoming cohort: February 2025 Learn more and apply

ICURe Explore is a 12-week full-time market exploration programme. It provides financial support of up to £35,000 for an Entrepreneurial Lead’s salary, assumption testing, and customer discovery activities. This programme is aimed at helping research teams from across the UK to explore technology applications and test value propositions through extensive market engagement globally.

The ICURe Explore programme is designed using lean start-up methodology and funded by Innovate UK. Lean start-up takes the scientific method (hypothesise, test, evaluate) and applies it to business ideas. Your team will learn how to use this approach to test what your potential customers think about your idea, product, or service.

Past participants say that having three months of commercialisation support, dedicated time, and funding to spend on customer discovery has dramatically changed their perspective on their innovation.

Who can apply?

ICURe Explore is open to research teams in the UK excluding those from incorporated and/or trading companies. This includes but is not limited to, UK researchers in a public or academic lab, a research institute, an incubator, or a national facility

We particularly welcome applications from universities in Wales. We are committed to improving diversity across our programmes and are actively seeking applications from under-represented groups including women, people of colour, those with disabilities, those from the LGBTQI+ communities, and Universities who have not previously participated in our programmes.

What’s included?

• £35,000 support to cover the salary of the Entrepreneurial Lead for 12 weeks, and expenses associated with market exploration.
• Five-day training bootcamp with commercialisation experts.
• Individual mentoring opportunities with an experienced research commercialisation mentor.
• The testing of value propositions through extensive market engagement and deep in-market research of areas including supply chains, regulators etc.
• Opportunity to access further support and apply for up to £300,000 of follow-on funding from Innovate UK.*
• Following the programme, selected teams will enter the Exploit phase of ICURe where they will receive up to 12 weeks of full-time intensive support.

 *Subject to receiving a recommendation at Options Roundabout and Visa restrictions.

Learn more about ICURe Explore

Upcoming cohort: Upcoming cohort: 2025 dates coming soon