In 2025, the E-Lab ran the third edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of one of our runners up, Rahul Thotakura from King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, which explores the reasons teambuilding is essential to start up success.

The King’s E-Lab Social Venture Residential reinforces a fundamental insight: meaningful progress in entrepreneurship, particularly social entrepreneurship, rarely occurs in isolation. Rather, it emerges through deliberate engagement, critical exchange, and exposure to diverse ways of thinking. In this week’s blog, read this and other learnings from Mendos Fidelis’s as he reflects on the critical tools of entrepreneurial thinking and the ethical responsibility of entrepreneurs.

On the 28th of November 2025, the E-Lab hosted the Digital Energy Grid Summit in partnership with Beckn Labs‍, Networks for Humanity, and the Innovation Hub for Prosperity. Convening investors, builders, regulators, and energy communities, the summit was not just a conference but a catalyst for commercial collaboration, designed to turn shared vision into coordinated action. In this week’s blog, read reflections from the organising team on insights, outcomes and next steps.

On the 14th of January 2026, as a part of the Social Venture Residential, the E-Lab hosted Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, FSI, the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In this week’s blog, read moderator Benedetta Asher’s insights on creating sustainable and resilient innovation; including how we need to embed it deliberately, design complementary and capable support organisations, and champion leadership that invests in shared understanding and collective ownership.

In 2025, the E-Lab ran the third edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of one of our runners up, Jessica Smart from Harlington Upper School, which explores the different challenges for start ups (through the world of sunscreen!).

The Impact Revolution reimagines the current economic order. In place of careless capitalism, a system of impact marries profit and purpose to realise humanity’s potential to create a positive social and environmental future for all. On the 22^nd of January, the E-Lab hosted Sir Ronald Cohen, pioneering social innovator and father of both private equity and social investment to share the insights from his latest book, Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change. In this week’s blog, read about the makings of the Impact Revolution, the challenges it faces, and the possible reasons to retain some optimism in the face of ongoing social and environmental threats.

In the middle of January, the E-Lab hosted its 2026 Social Venture Residential Programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme and the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation. Designed to support students of all disciplines in developing sustainable and ethical projects with a positive social and environmental impact, the SVR aims to equip those with a passion for change with key entrepreneurial skills. In this week’s blog, read Mphil student Damilola Oyeyemi’s reflections on the residential and on the mindset shifts it created for her.

After winning the Simmons & Simmons challenge at the E-Lab LLMxLaw Hackathon 2.0, the Jurispark team visited the firm's London office in December 2025 to demo their AI-powered legal research platform. In this week’s blog read about what they learned about bridging academic innovation and legal practice and about the value of practical insights.

On December 6th, we celebrated the third year of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition and announced the 2025 Winners at an Awards Ceremony in King’s College. The essay competition serves to foster entrepreneurial mindsets in young students and to encourage them to engage with innovative thinking, this year welcoming over 340 entries from across 247 schools. In this week’s blog, our Senior Associate Rhys Williams explains the value of the competition, the themes of this year’s essay questions, and the strategies employed by our three winners and 17 commended essays.

In 2025, we hosted 96 incredible events, including fireside chats, panels, workshops, expos, and other impactful gatherings. We welcomed pioneering thinkers and leaders from will.i.am to Nobel Prize Laureate Geoff Hinton.

Alongside artists, scientists, Governors, MPs, Nobel Prize winners, ambassadors, policymakers and business leaders we provided the space for nearly 7,000 students, university members and guests to engage with innovators of all kinds.

Read more about a year of new endeavors at the E-Lab, including our highlights, activities, celebrations and much more in this piece.