Our Work
Through our work we develop products and services, people, and ecosystems. All three are needed to create a lasting enabling environment for the best people to tackle the most challenging problems, and make new, context-appropriate solutions available where they are most needed.
Our projects focus on one innovation or research question.
Ideation
To find innovative responses to difficult challenges we take both a challenge-led (tech-pull) and an opportunity-led (tech-push) approach.
Challenge-led Ideation
Through our global civil society network we identify challenges faced by low-resource communities in developing and emerging economies. We then match these challenges with the interests of those interested in developing an inclusive innovation in response. From running hackathons, to presenting questions for modules in university courses, to hosting ideation workshops for multi-year consortium research programmes, we engage students, researchers, businesses and innovators willing to get involved.
Simprints
at a Humanitarian Centre Hackathon on xxx the Simprints team got the idea that let to the now highly successful social
Lao MakerBox
Lthe challenge from Lao makerbox that CGE brought to 3rd year engingeers at Cambridge is now being implemented
Opportunity-led Ideation
In order to make sure cutting edge research and emerging science and technology does not only benefit the wealthy and well connected we collaborate with Cambridge i-Teams to deliver Development i-Teams and International i-Teams programmes.
Development i-Teams
explores how research at the University of Cambridge could be applied contribute to sustainable development.
Global i-Teams
transfers knowledge about of how to run i-Teams to universities internationally . CGE has played a key role setting up i-Teams programmes in Kenya, and Ethiopia.
Opportunity-led Ideation
We catalyse and support the delivery of academic research aimed at contributing to sustainable development, whether this be through individual projects or multi-year consortium programmes.
Through partnership and ecosystem building we create an enabling environment for equitable, productive collaboration with academics and end-users in partner countries.
We also support the conversion of academic results into products, services and policies so that potential impact is realised.
Climate Compatible Growth
The Climate Compatible Growth programme supports investment in sustainable energy and transport systems that address development priorities across the Global South. The initiative brings together partners in government, industry, and research to advance practical pathways for sustainable growth.
TIGR2ESS
The Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies research programme aimed to define the requirements for advancing the Green Revolution in India, and set the policy agenda to enhance sustainable crop production and resource use.
MillNETi
The Millets and Nutritional Enhancement Traits for Iron bioavailability programme aimed to improve iron nutrition status of people in Ethiopia and The Gambia by assessing the bioavailability of iron from biofortified millets, and identifying food processing and cooking strategies to improve nutrition.
If you would like to collaborate to enhance the sustainable development impact of your research please contact us.
Cocreation
If inclusive innovations are to be appropriate for their intended contexts it is crucial that cocreation with end-users, and key actors in the value chain, takes place at each stage of the innovation’s evolution. Enabling genuinely collaborative cocreation at every stage of the process is core to all our activities.
Development i-Teams follow-on Awards
i-Teams inventors and team members have received awards to explore connections and opportunities in Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, South Africa and China.
CCG Country Network Annual Workshops
Each year the Special Interest Groups that make up the CCG Country Networks meet with UK-based researchers to co-create collaborative research and policy-facing projects.
Growth - The Cultivator
Both research results and the initial ideas driving early-stage technology-based social enterprises generally require significant R&D before they are able to full their potential and deliver their intended social and environmental impacts.
Through our Inclusive Innovation Cultivator, we provide the specialist support that social enterprises need in order to contribute to sustainable development successfully.
Implementation and Scaling
The innovations we support make a positive difference in the real world by following one, or a combination, of three routes to impact: through the market, through policy change and through knowledge-sharing.
BlueTap acquired by Thermofluidics
Alumni Cultivator Venture Blue Tap was acquired by Thermofluidics in 2024. Both BlueTap’s automated chlorine doser technology and their mission-driven approach global partnerships were key to this successful exit.
Lao PDR National Green Hydrogen and Ammonia Roadmap
The Climate Compatible Growth programme’s Country Partnerships teams at CGE and the National University of Laos supported the production of this policy based on research done at Imperial College London with a technical working group in Lao PDR.
Ecosystem Building
When we start a inclusive innovation collaboration in a new place we first map the ecosystem to understand what already exists so as to avoid duplication. Then we propose collaborations where we think there’s the opportunity to introduce an inclusive innovation offering into an existing initiative. Finally we introduce new programmes where there are gaps in the inclusive innovation cycle.
In Cambridge, for instance, we collaborate with Cambridge i-Teams to offer a programme focused on Sustainable Development, and we co-founded Cambridge Global Challenges the University of Cambridge’s research network for international development. We also established and co-deliver the Cambridge Centre for Inclusive Innovation, which supports teaching and research underpinned by our approach to inclusive innovation.
Development i-Teams, Cambridge
Since co-developing the Development i-Teams programme with Cambridge i-Teams in 2015, we have explored the potential of over 60 innovations emerging from academic research to contribute to sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries.
BiT Makerspace, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
In collaboration with the Bahir Dar Institute of Technology in Ethiopia, CGE co-established the Seifu BiT Makerspace in 2019. Integrated into the Business Incubation and Techno Entrepreneurship Center-BiTec, it is now one of the University’s flagship initiatives.
