Warwick Future Innovation Leaders
Warwick Future Innovation Leaders
Transform your ground-breaking research into impactful solutions with our prestigious Future Innovation Leaders programme.
Warwick Future Innovation Leaders is an exciting new programme run by Warwick Innovations with the aim of identifying high potential academics and researchers who could lead innovation in their departments and across the University.
This is a programme to develop people, not projects; it offers academics and researchers a unique pathway to develop your career at Warwick. Participants gain access to valuable resources, including expert mentorship, funding opportunities, and industry connections, all designed to accelerate your talent for innovation. Additionally, the programme enhances your entrepreneurial skills, broadens your professional network, and increases the visibility of your work within both academic and business communities. By participating, you not only advance your research but also contribute to societal progress, driving innovation that can lead to significant technological and economic advancements.
Meet our first cohort
We were delighted to have the opportunity to present to Professor Stuart Croft as the culmination of our first WFIL programme. We will soon be posting interviews with our researchers to find out what they thought about the programme, and you see nelow who they are and what they are doing/.
Will Pointer - Department of Chemistry
Will Pointer is a final year PhD student studying automated synthesis of polymers. His work is aimed at increasing the rate at which innovative polymers are discovered. Will will be investigating the route from academic research to commercial proposition, the trials, tribulations, and the benefits to both the researchers and the university. He will investigate this by taking his own work as a model to be investigated for commercial application. Additionally, he will gain insight into the current interest in investing in university IP from venture partners, the wider UK investment industry and by liaising with start-up founders.
Dr Andrea DSouza - Warwick Medical School
Andrea is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Warwick Medical School specialising in bacterial infection diagnostics and development of a smart in vitro gut model for elucidating mechanisms of Clostridium difficile infection. The WFIL programme will enable her to develop strategic insights into the diagnostic market, and she will be able to take a significant step towards understanding the most effective route for commercialising the rapid diagnostic test including finding appropriate business partners, licensing opportunities, and pathways to a Warwick-based spinout.
Dr Richard Moore - Department of Philosophy
Richard is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and his research investigates similarities and differences in the cognitive, communicative and cooperative abilities of humans, great apes, and other species; and the evolution of human language and cognition. He is exploring the applications of his research to the study of animal translation (for example, Project CETI) and to artificial language models. The WFIL programme will support him to raise his public profile on issues of animal/interspecies communication and foundations of human language, to secure public writing opportunities, media interviews, and consultation work with organisations such as DeepMind, CETI and Google.
The opportunity
- Build upon your hard and soft skills with a bespoke plan of activity, training and professional development programme
- Benefit from one to one mentoring throughout the programme by a Warwick Innovations Business Development Manager
- Get access and engagement with high value external specialists and resources to support professional development
- Collaborate with corporate partners, investors, and entrepreneurs
- Gain knowledge and build networks within innovation ecosystems from local to global scale
Key Dates
Applications open: 1 August 2025
Shortlist Interviews: not more than 4 weeks after application received
Programme starts: ongoing
Programme duration: 5 months from commencement
The Programme
Because we aim to develop you as an individual, the programme is tailored to helping you meet your personal development goals. The first step will be to match you with one of the Warwick Innovations Business Development Managers (BDM) who will work with you to agree learning objectives and identify networking opportunities. You will create a learning and impact plan, and a schedule of deliverables based on this. Your BDM will have regular sessions with you on a one to one basis, which can be scheduled around your other commitments, and we will also organise lunchtime events where you can meet and exchange ideas with the others on the programme.
A key element of the programme is supporting you to grow your network of contacts both inside and outside of the University. The Warwick Innovations team delivers events and activities throughout the year which you can attend, such as the 'Innovation @ the Junction' series of talks, and the CEO forum meetings, as well as hosting speakers from some of the companies we work with.
Early in the programme, you will present your plan to a member of the senior leadership team, and discuss how you think you can use the experience to improve your research impact and innovation productivity. The final part of the programme will be an interview with an SLT member to review how the programme has helped you and how it will benefit the University, together with an action plan for your next steps.
The Rules
To be eligible to apply for this programme you must be a postdoc or member of staff, and if you are on a fixed term contract, you should have more than two years remaining from commencement of the programme.
You must be nominated by your Head of Department or Impact Manager, and your application must be accompanied by a statement from your nominator.
The first programme runs from 4 November 2024 – 28 March 2025, but we will be open for applications on an ongoing basis. We expect you to be available on campus during this period and to commit cumulatively up to half a day every other week. Some of this time will need to be taken during business hours but you will have flexibility to work around your other commitments. Some of the work can be done in your own time outside of business hours.
Next Steps
You will need to get approval from your line manager to apply to this programme. Please fill in their details as part of the application form at the link below.
You should also prepare a personal statement saying why you are interested in the programme, which might include things such as: how do you hope it might help you in your Warwick career, what does success look like for you, and what are your learning objectives? Both your personal statement and nominator's statement should be a maximum of one page in length.
Finally, both your personal statement and your nominator's statement should be submitted as attachments to the form, so please have them ready before applying.