Cambridge NeuroWorks Fellowship Programme
Milner Therapeutics Institute, University of Cambridge
Cambridge NeuroWorks are seeking individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences who are passionate about addressing the pressing challenges within neurotechnology.
Your ideas could be at any stage of maturity, and could focus on:
- Early-stage diagnosis of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
- Therapeutic approaches, including novel modalities, bio-hybrids, innovative device-based platforms, medicinal agents, and other non-drug interventions.
- Providing support for those living with these disorders.
You also don’t need to consider yourself part of the “neurotech” community to apply—what matters is your ability to think boldly and contribute innovative solutions.
We encourage applications from:
- Engineers, scientists, clinicians, medical professionals, and industry experts.
- Those who can explore speculative ideas or refine them for transformative impact.
- Those who will be empowered by this partnership – in ways otherwise not possible.
How the Fellowships work
We are offering up to eighteen 12-month Fellowships, which can be completed by up to eighteen individual Fellows as standalone schemes or in sequence by fellows who pursue a follow-on year. The programme will enable rapid pivoting when hypotheses are disproved and accelerate innovation when hypotheses are validated. It has been designed as two complementary pathways to cater for varying degrees of idea maturity, and both pathways will enjoy 12-month fixed term agreements – allowing you to try a new idea every time you disprove a hypothesis and equally, thrive when you find your winning idea. Fellows will be allocated a host institution, most suitable for their idea, to undertake their fellowship, and once completed, you will be empowered to return to your localities to continue your impact.
Pathway 1: The Blue Sky Fellowship
This is a 12-month programme designed to support “What If” ideation. It empowers outstanding individuals with high-impact, highly speculative concepts that require the freedom to 'fail fast’ and retry. Backing Fellows rather than specific ideas, this pathway provides the infrastructure to support further ideation and planning cycles when initial hypotheses are disproved. The Fellowship begins with a 3-month phase to scope, ideate, and plan experimental pathways, ensuring projects are both ambitious and feasible.
- Supports exploration of bold, high-risk ideas with transformative potential.
- Encourages development of one idea in greater detail by the end of the Fellowship.
- Focuses on individuals, enabling them to iterate on multiple potential solutions.
You should apply for this pathway if you have bold, speculative hypotheses or ideas, and need the freedom to explore multiple possibilities until you find your winning transformative solution
Pathway 2: Frontier Fellowship
This is a 12-month programme for individuals who have moved beyond speculative “What If” ideas to the “How might” phase, where proof-of-concept has already been established. This pathway provides targeted support to advance early-stage concepts, incorporating commercial insights and resources to prepare projects for real-world impact.
- Designed for ideas with proof-of-concept, ready for development and scaling.
- Commercial wrap-around, and early clinical input to prepare projects for success.
- Focuses on refining one or more project concepts for practical application.
- Positions Fellows to drive impact in their localities post-Fellowship.
You should apply for this pathway if you have a proof-of-concept idea and are ready to focus on turning it into a scalable, real-world solution with commercial potential
What the award of a Fellowship Grant will provide:
- A grant of approximately £57,000 intended to cover living expenses whilst undertaking the Fellowship;
- Funding of approximately £40,000 intended to cover cost of consumables;
- Funding of approximately £20,000 Intended to cover bench fees at host institution;
- World-class Entrepreneurial training delivered through several initiatives and mentorship schemes that are most aligned to the stage of development of ideas – for example, Frontier Fellows will participate in the Accelerate@Babraham programme;
- Opportunity for formal association with a with a Cambridge University College;
- Opportunity for Membership of with the virtual Cambridge Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Research Centre.