What we offer

What sets us apart is our commitment to tailoring our support to your unique team—no cookie-cutter solutions here. We deliberately steer clear of standardized cohort classes, as our programme revolves entirely around your solution and team dynamics.  This environment naturally fuels high motivation—the kind of extraordinary drive needed for challenging endeavours, whether it's launching a venture, introducing a game-changing solution within an established enterprise, or turning rigorous research into practical reality.

Our support system 

Technical acceleration: Our accelerator has a strong technical focus. No matter where you are in your development you will benefit from advice from our team of technical experts, including AWS Senior Solution Architects and UCL Advanced Research Computing specialists. They customise their guidance to enhance your technical team's capacity to build solutions and products that are secure and scalable, built on AWS Well-Architected pillars.

Business acceleration: Alongside our technical assistance, we provide specialised business mentoring tailored to your specific needs through partnerships with key players in UCL's dynamic innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, such as UCL School of Management, UCLPartners, UCL Business, Innovate UK Edge and others. This entails access to a dedicated business consultant and a curated list of mentors via Startbook, an exclusive platform facilitating connections with industry experts, academic leaders, programme alumni, and funding contacts. Additionally, you will benefit from a valuable CDI support network, involving in-house entrepreneurial staff, the management team, and fellow programme peers. While we prioritize an individualised acceleration approach, this doesn't imply isolation; rather, we actively foster connections within our community, uniting founders, alumni, mentors, speakers, and funding partners—all dedicated to helping your venture thrive.

Research engagement: Finally, the programme focuses on bolstering and nurturing the evidence base for your digital solution. We actively foster startup-academic collaborations by providing participants with the opportunity to be paired with academics and researchers and receive support through student projects. Through these connections, we create a synergistic link between research endeavours and commercial ventures, laying the groundwork for success. By capitalizing on UCL's extensive knowledge exchange experience, we aim to enhance the overall impact and effectiveness of our collaborative efforts, utilizing frameworks like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) to drive innovation and research-commercial integration.

Transformative 12 Weeks: Many founders describe the 12 weeks leading up to our Demo Day as profoundly transformative. Although UCL CDI's support continues beyond the initial 3-month cycle, these 12 weeks are pivotal for taking your solution to new heights. We firmly believe that with the right conditions and dedicated support, your venture can achieve far more than initially imagined. Find out more about our programme below!

Phase 1: Ideate and Assess 

Ignite your innovation journey in Phase One of the programme, where we assess your acceleration needs and collaboratively set business and technical goals. Please note that Phase 1 is part of our selection process. We admit 10-15 ventures who pass our initial Management and Experts Committee review (see the Who Should Apply section for eligibility criteria) to Phase 1. It provides great value in terms of understanding your specific needs and how we can help your team best to achieve success. The outputs of the below workshops are presented to the CDI Steering Committee for Phase 2 selection and official admission on to the programme.  

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Innovation Workshop - In this workshop, you'll delve into the innovative "working backwards" methodology by AWS, guiding you to visualize your business value proposition tailored to a specific customer base and with consideration for potential partners. This culminates in crafting a futuristic press release, providing a tangible asset that showcases the distinctive value your venture offers.  

• Duration: 1 Full Day 
• Output: Press Release and an extensive Frequently Asked Questions document to be prepared by the team. 
• Team Members to attend: Business, Innovation & Technical Decision-Maker(s) - Required & Any other relevant team members - Strongly Recommended 
• Conducted by: CDI Management team and AWS Head of Clinical Innovation or Education equivalent 

Technical Workshop - This workshop is tailored to assess your product's current standing and identify technical needs. By the end, you'll possess a comprehensive blueprint for your product's development, laying the groundwork for Phase Two engagement. 

• Duration: 1 Full Day 
• Output: Technical Needs Report prepared by the AWS Senior Solutions Architect team  
• Team Members to attend: Technical Decision-Maker(s) - Required & Technical Team - Required 
• Conducted by: CDI Field CTO and AWS Senior Solutions Architect teams 

Phase 1 workshops are conducted in-person and virtual participation is not possible.  

Next steps: Your active engagement and commitment during Phase 1, along with the quality of the assets you produce, will be evaluated by our Steering Committee (SC). The SC then selects the teams that will officially advance to Phase 2 based on the alignment of goals and needs that correspond with the support that UCL CDI can offer at the next stage of the programme. 

Phase 2: Build and Accelerate 

This is where your acceleration journey takes off, working closely with a range of UCL and AWS experts to transform your vision into a reality, enabling you to achieve technical and business acceleration with a real societal impact. 

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• Kick-off Day - Introduction to Phase Two includes presentation by the programme delivery team including technical and business experts who will guide you through the programme. You’ll learn about the extensive support and resources available, present your solution as well as network with fellow cohort members.  
• Discovery - Engage in a comprehensive exploration of the new technical and business solutions to be adopted.  
• Prototype - Begin crafting the prototype of your solution, bringing your ideas to life. 
• Build, Test & Refine - Enter the trial-and-error phase, making optimisations to refine your prototype. 
• Deploy - Launch your Minimum Lovable Product (MLP), Proof of Concept (POC), or open-source build, taking your working prototype to the public and engaging with your audience in the market. 
• Demo Day – Pitch and showcase your accomplishments, impact, and discoveries at Demo Day. 
• Duration: 12 – 18 weeks 
• Output: Product acceleration, case study, technical blueprint 
• Team Members to attend: Business Decision-Maker(s) - Required for business acceleration sessions & Technical Teams – Required for weekly technical meetings 
• Conducted by: A range of domain experts tailored to your specific business needs 

We require in-person attandence to the Kick off day and the Demo day. In person participation for technical and funding readiness workshops provided by the centre is encouraged. All venture specific Phase 2 consultancy sessions with technical, business and funding experts can be conducted online, allowing for virtual participation.  

Phase 3: Extended Support 

Phase 3 provides bespoke extended support to facilitate your continued success, documenting the story and impact of your digital innovation, and connecting you with crucial resources and key individuals for the next stage of your journey. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: 

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• Case Studies – Collaborate with our team to produce a case study that showcases your solution and innovation journey with the CDI.  
• CDI Showcase – All Phase 2 alumni are required to pitch at least once at our bi-annual CDI showcase post-programme. This offers the opportunity to present their digital solutions to investors, researchers, and industry professionals. As a CDI perk, they will be invited to all future showcases. 
• AWS Activate – Phase 2 alumni gain access to further AWS credits and further technical support through our partnership with AWS Activate.  
• Marketing Assets – Create marketing assets to enhance the visibility of your digital solution and showcase its societal impact among the UCL community and beyond.