Inclusive Innovation Lead

• £45,000 – £47,000 p.a. dependent on qualifications and experience, with benefits.
• Cambridge, UK
• October 11, 2026

The Centre for Global Equality seeks a self-motivated, highly organised individual with excellent people skills to lead CGE’s inclusive innovation activities in Cambridge, support the establishment of Inclusive Innovation programmes with partner universities in Kenya and Ghana, and facilitate collaborations between the three programmes.

• Role:
  Inclusive Innovation Lead.
• Rate: £45,000 – £47,000 p.a. dependent on qualifications and experience, with benefits.
• Basis:
  Full-time, 3-year contract with potential to become permanent, funding permitting.
• Location:
  
  Cambridge, UK, (in person at least three days a week, flexible working for the remainder). Requires regular travel to countries in Africa.
• Eligibility:
  Must have the right to work in the UK on application.

The Centre for Global Equality (CGE) contributes to more equitable global economic development and environmental sustainability by making new knowledge and its benefits accessible to those who need this most. While cutting-edge research, novel science and frontier technology could significantly change the world for the better, presently only a small amount of this potential is being realised. To address this lost opportunity CGE has developed an approach called Inclusive Innovation.

Made up of principles, practices, programmes, and partnerships, the Inclusive Innovation approach was developed in collaboration with researchers, innovators, implementers and end-users in the UK and across the world.

Inclusive Innovation principles and practices ensure that impact-focused research and innovation are co-created collaboratively, based on mutual regard for different types of expertise, are integrated into existing ecosystems in ways that enhance the agency of local actors, and are delivered balancing fair recompense and sufficient return.

Implementing this approach generates innovations that are useable and used in resource-constrained environments because they are responsible, appropriate for the context, respond to a genuine need, add significant value and are accessible to end-users.

Enabling environments are created through the establishment of inclusive innovation ecosystems made up of programmes the support the evolution of innovations from idea through research, co-creation and venture-building to implementation and scaling for impact. Through the Cultivator, our specialist venture-builder for sustainable development, we support +30 start-ups focusing on food, energy, water, health, education, income generation, climate and the environment.

CGE’s UK activities are run from our Inclusive Innovation Hub in central Cambridge, where the Cultivator is housed. Our contribution to research and teaching at the University of Cambridge is enabled through the Cambridge Centre for Inclusive Innovation based in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB). Other UK universities and research institutions we collaborate with include Imperial, UCL, Oxford, Loughborough, Strathclyde, NIAB and the British Antarctic Survey.

CGE has a global network of partners in low- and middle-income countries. Presently we work directly in the UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Lao PDR, Vietnam, India and Malawi. Our Cultivator ventures also work in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Inclusive Innovation Lead is a key role in CGE’s core team at an exciting time in our evolution as an organisation. Having spent a decade bootstrapping the evolution of the inclusive innovation approach through a number of projects, we have recently been awarded funding from…