CBIT Venture Builder
Nottingham Trent UniversityNottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent UniversityCentre for Business and Industry Transformation
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CBIT Venture Builder/Research and university leaders

Research and university leaders

Win interdisciplinary research, and turn it into ventures and impact.

Email us about your bid

Start with STEAM Xcelerate: interdisciplinary by design, impact by default.

For principal investigators and research directors; pro-vice-chancellors for research and enterprise, deans, and heads of technology-transfer offices (TTOs), commercialisation teams and science parks, in the UK and overseas.

How CBIT works with research and university leaders

Interdisciplinary research, from bid to impact

STEAM Xcelerate: the method behind CBIT’s two awards in UKRI’s Cross-Research Council Responsive Mode, brought into your next bid, then impact tracked and analysed by AI agents with ImpactTracker, CBIT’s platform.

Venture partner for your bid

A named partner that runs the venture-creation or commercialisation work in your bid, with Venture Builder support as in-kind match.

A programme for your researchers

STEAM Founder cohorts that turn research into ventures: an AI-first lean start-up journey for researchers, technicians and student founders.

Executive PhD routes for your CDT or DTC bid

Doctoral routes inside your doctoral-training bid: the Executive PhD route and the practitioner-doctorate route.

Build your innovation ecosystem

Build or strengthen a research-commercialisation ecosystem, with Train-the-Trainer for your technology-transfer, science-park and incubator staff.

Founder sprints

A UK sprint for the student and researcher founders you send: market validation, mentoring, a showcase and a pitch day.

Sister centres

A long-term partnership: a sister centre that hosts repeat programmes, reciprocal soft landing for ventures and joint bids.

Track record

Professor Xiao Ma, CBIT’s Director: BeefTwin £1.2m (Project Lead, Round 1) and EASE £1.2m (Project Co-Lead, Round 2) — the only UK researcher to have won awards in both rounds of UKRI's Cross-Research Council Responsive Mode. EASE is co-led with Dr Iryna Kuksa, NTU School of Art & Design.

£0.0m+

in research and education funding won, with partners

since 2022

0+

Thai entrepreneurs hosted in the UK under the STEAM Founder programme

2024–2026

0+

professionals trained in Thailand (MHESI and Chiang Mai University programmes, 2024–2026)

2024–2026

Source: CBIT figures registry v1.8 (1 October 2026). Figures and sources →

See the research projects

Impact stories

More stories for research and university leaders

All programme impact

Work with CBIT

You contract with Nottingham Trent University (NTU). CBIT, the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation, is part of Nottingham Business School at NTU. NTU signs grants, contracts and agreements; CBIT delivers the work. The CBIT Venture Builder is CBIT’s programme for founders.

Start small: bring us into one bid at the expression-of-interest stage, for its interdisciplinary method or its venture engine, or run one STEAM Founder cohort for your researchers.

Email cbit@ntu.ac.uk

Tell us the call, the deadline and the role you have in mind.