Under the on-site comments and witness of Chinese and British mentors, business experts, and professional investors, the seven young Chinese participants in the Impulse Programme led by Cambridge University eventually transformed their vivid but immature technology-based entrepreneurial ideas that were put forth three months ago into an operational, logical, and feasible business plan.

"This is a three-month thinking revolution focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship. With exciting brainstorming, this program enables me to truly understand entrepreneurship, build a basic business framework, and master the principles of entrepreneurship. It also inspires me to re-examine technology and business innovation from a multi-dimensional and scientific perspective”, said Liu Siyang, who graduated from Cambridge University and is one of the participants of the Impulse Programme.

The first local Cambridge University Impulse Programme, lasting for three months, officially ended on July 15. Ms. Liu Ming, Science and Technology Director of the British Consulate-General in Guangzhou, and Professor Ye Zhirui, Director of the International Cooperation Department of Southeast University were invited to address the closing ceremony.  Many other guests attended the closing activities, including Mr. Daping Chu, Tenured Chair Professor of Cambridge University and Academic Director of Cambridge University-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation (CUNJC), Ms. Yupar Myint, head of Entrepreneurship at the Maxwell Centre of Cambridge University and head of Impulse Programme, and several Chinese and British mentors and business experts from the Impulse Programme. Mr. Wu An, the General Manager of CUNJC, presided over the closing ceremony and issued the completion certificates to the Chinese participants on behalf of CUNJC.

"The Impulse Programme provides young talents with valuable opportunities to embark on the path of entrepreneurship", Ms. Liu Ming recognised the initiative of CUNJC and Maxwell Centre to jointly build a platform to introduce the Impulse Programme into China to empower local communities and allow more talents to benefit from the innovation ecosystem of Cambridge. On the topic of "How the UK supports business innovation", she shared the innovation ecosystem that the UK has built in terms of capital market, innovation environment, education system, supportive policies, etc., and hoped that China and the UK enhanced the exchanges in the field of technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

 “Coping with the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this is the first time since the Impulse Programme of Cambridge University was held in 2016 that it cooperates with resources from multiple places and adopts a mixed teaching model of online and offline”, Mrs. Yupar shared in her review and summary. “The Impulse Programme, which focuses on the theme of innovation, maintains its own innovation and iteration, which is inseparable from the close cooperation of CUNJC. The Programme fully examines different business backgrounds, is oriented by local needs, adopts parallel customised modules, and serves local technology entrepreneurs according to local conditions.”

Professor Daping Chu congratulated the first group of Chinese participants who successfully completed the program, and expressed his gratitude to Southeast University which was the domestic university collaborator of the Impulse Programme. “As an international technology R&D institution oriented towards applied research and industrial progress, Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation (CUNJC) introduces the Impulse Programme with the intentions to introduce Cambridge experience and support the local entrepreneurship and innovation strategy”, Professor Chu emphasized. Through the Cambridge University industrialization project, which has integrated local elements, CUNJC provides an entrepreneurial environment similar to real business environment, the mature experience that has been repeatedly tested in practice, as well as valuable chances of trial and error for graduate students and young people who have an entrepreneurial vision and are working on science and technology innovation. All of these can help them step out of school, enter the market, and establish start-ups.

"Driving a clunker in ragged clothes to found a new world." Entrepreneurship is difficult, especially establishing technology-based companies in the face of high industry barriers. Professor Daping Chu, who has been focused on scientific research and application transformation for many years, shared four suggestions with young entrepreneurs:

“During the three-month Cambridge University Impulse Programme, the participants of Southeast University gained a wealth of entrepreneurial knowledge and demonstrated their ideas in the form of roadshows.” Professor Ye said, "I hope the participants can apply what they have learned in practices and increase their social value.” He further pointed out that he wished to take this Impulse Programme as an opportunity to deepen the partnership between Southeast University, Cambridge University, and CUNJC so as to promote more fruitful cooperation.

The Cambridge University Impulse Programme is a short-term training program developed by the Maxwell Centre of Cambridge University for technology entrepreneurs and start-ups. It focuses on helping entrepreneurs develop high-potential business opportunities, introducing the core school-enterprise resources of the Cambridge Science and Technology Cluster, providing participants with opportunities to communicate with executives and investors of internationally renowned technology companies, and catalyzing the realization of innovative ideas.

In 2022, as a support platform for Cambridge University's integrated development in China and a service provider for technological innovation and entrepreneurship, CUNJC has introduced this combat-tested project in China for the first time. In the phase of selecting the first group of local students, the Programme attracted many research-oriented talents from both domestic and international universities and returned alumni to apply. After selection, seven local innovative entrepreneurs were admitted, who came from the fields of semiconductor, optoelectronics, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, software and hardware development, community service, engineering assistance, etc. 30% of them were Cambridge University and Oxford University alumni, 85% were master and doctoral students, while over 40% of the entrepreneurial trainees were women.

The core content of the Programme focused on understanding value proposition, business model, marketing strategy, fundraising, financial management, team building, intellectual property strategy, and commercialization strategy. Integrating advanced innovation concepts with local actual needs, the 2022 Cambridge University Impulse Programme introduced more customized modules for Chinese students. Local mentors and senior business experts, together with British mentors and experts were invited to share the experience with participants through workshops, group learning, one-on-one seminars, innovation and entrepreneurship seminars, etc., which were held in both online and offline manner. They also helped entrepreneurs shape and build a social capital network which makes innovation more scientific and evidence-based and allows the realization of ideas to be clearer and more feasible, helping Chinese participants grow in an all-around way.