Who can join?

For Cambridge:

• Any post-graduate student or member of staff from any department at Cambridge University, or any other University in the East of England, including MPhil, PhD, MBA, and 4th year undergraduates
• Any member of CUTEC
• Any member of Cambridge University Entrepreneurs

For London:

• Any post-graduate student or member of staff from any department and any university in the London region, including Masters, PhD and MBA
• Any member of the Centre for Creative Collaboration

When does it run?

• Cambridge i-Teams runs every term
• The next i-Teams London and i-Teams Taster dates are currently being finalised

How long does it last?

• i-Teams projects run for a full term (about 9 weeks), usually with a first meeting at the end of the previous term
• Taster projects run for 2 weeks with 3 half-day workshop sessions

How much time does it take?

• Weekly group and team meetings plus at least 4 hours a week of individual work
• Taster has 3 half-day workshops plus at least 8 hours a week of individual work

Who is in an i-Team?

• Teams include up to 7 post-graduate students, selected to be as multi-disciplinary as possible
• Each team has an industry mentor, and are also supported by Amy Mokady in London, and by Amy Mokady and Rich Morales in Cambridge

What will I learn?
You gain the hands-on experience and satisfaction of "learning by doing", working on a real project where your ideas and conclusions will influence future directions and outcomes. Skills gained include:

• Teamworking & team management
• Brainstorming
• Identify the key commercial benefits of a technology or product innovation
• Identify relevant competitors and potential collaborators
• Identify and contact relevant industry experts
• Use and develop your own network of contacts
• Cold calling and extracting useful information from commercial contacts
• Analyse incomplete data from a variety of sources to draw a justifiable conclusion
• Presentation skills (for a non-expert audience)

Final results are presented to a mixed university and industry audience, and back-up materials are also given to the researchers.

What do I get?

• Everyone that completes the program receives a certificate
• In Cambridge:
  • Free entry to the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Business Creation Competition, £1k and £5k stages
  • The Physical Sciences Graduate School and the Department of Chemistry have pre-approved i-Teams as part of their Transferable Skills program
  • Students on the Masters for Bioscience Enterprise program receive extra course credits
  • PhD students in other Schools should receive Transferable Skills credits, but will need to ask their Transferable Skills coordinator

Do I need previous business/commercial experience?
Absolutely not. Any post-graduate can apply to join i-Teams, whether or not you have previous commercial experience. Teams are chosen to have as broad a range of backgrounds as possible, and all your current knowledge and experience may well prove to be useful. The key qualification is to be enthusiastic and willing to try out new approaches.

Do I need relevant technical knowledge?
Absolutely not, and you don't need to be a scientist either. We specifically look for teams to be multi-disciplinary, so while one or two team members may have a background directly relevant to the technology, most of the team members will not. Our aim is to take a fresh view of the invention, to see if it can be used in applications and markets outside of the researcher's own experience.

Can I use my own project?
Currently i-Teams uses the projects shown on this website, which are pre-selected for their relevance and commercial potential. If you have a project that you would like to have considered for future terms, please contact .

Do I need to apply as part of an existing team?
No, we ask for people to apply separately. Teams are selected from individual applications, to ensure that the team members have as broad a range of backgrounds as possible. If there are other people applying who you would specifically like to work with, then please include that with your application.

What about Intellectual Property?

• i-Teams students are all required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement.
• Students also agree that they will not be entitled to any revenue sharing should the project result in a later successful commercialisation.
• Any other arrangement would make it difficult for researchers to provide us with projects.