CIC are proud to support the Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge. A competition designed for University of Cambridge postdocs interested in taking their first steps into entrepreneurship.

The Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge, (PVCC) is aimed at supporting busy University of Cambridge postdocs interested in taking their first steps into creating a venture from their research.

The challenge welcomes innovative ideas across deep tech, life sciences, AI, software, and social impact, with two tracks to support different types of ventures.

Previous winners of the PVCC have gone on to raise £172m in investments and the programme represents a unique chance to get your research recognised in a high-profile competition.

Semi-finalists will be invited to take part in a bootcamp over the summer and finalists will pitch at the Grand Finale on 13 November 2025 – with three prize categories in each track including

  • an incredible £20k of funding from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures
  • an investment of £10K from CIC for the business track
  • £30K of business support

You can follow challenge updates on the Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge website.