Solving critical social issues by leveraging key research and direct action

The Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School acts as a platform for research and engagement with social innovators, academia and policy in UK and across the world. Its primary focus is to understand, promote, and engage with social innovators and create and support social ventures and projects.

Social innovation is concerned with the development of creative and practical solutions to complex social problems. While many social innovators work in non-profit organisations, they are increasingly found in government and corporations. The boundaries between the sectors have broken down, and social innovation now takes place at the intersection. That’s why our Centre focuses on leadership for social change, wherever it takes place. This requires a different approach; we aim to have a positive impact on the kind of world that we live in, blurring the boundaries between what is for-profit and what is non-profit.

Find out about the latest developments in the social innovation sphere, as well as gaining insights into Centre-related news and resources.

Join our mailing list

Social venturing - the bigger picture.

Our people

The Centre team (Professor Paul Tracey, Professor Neil Stott, and Dr Nicole Helwig) works closely with CJBS faculty, research fellows, and practitioner honorary fellows to develop cutting edge research, learning and support. Many other social innovators, volunteers and students also contribute to the work of the Centre.

View all people profiles

Our partners

Our partners span business, civil society, policy and academia. Our research and practice fellows collaborate with us on research and teaching. Through Cambridge Social Ventures, we are also firmly embedded in the Cambridge entrepreneurial ecosystem and the social sector across the UK.

What we do

We build best practices across business, civil society, policy and academia for a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable world, specifically:

We promote academic and industry leadership.

Explore the Centre’s research and learn more about our students’ research, both on social innovation topics.

We teach social innovation.

Learn and unlock potential through the Master of Studies in Social Innovation, a part-time programme delivered over two years, via online sessions and four residential weeks.

We develop programmes for socially-minded ventures.

Sign up to our Social Venture Weekend to explore your social impact idea or apply to our Social Venture Incubator to develop your venture.

We help others support their social venture ecosystems.

Contact us to discuss opportunities to work together.

Cambridge Social Innovation Prize

The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize, awarded by Trinity Hall and the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation celebrates and supports extraordinary social innovators creating social impact through business across the UK.

Learn more

Upcoming events

Our events are tailored towards educating and enabling students or business owners to start a social venture with the possibility of generating real-world impact.

Join our webinar with Professor Neil Stott to find out how you can become the solution to world’s most pressing problems.

Join our webinar with Professor Neil Stott to find out how you can become the solution to world’s most pressing problems.

News and insights

Read the latest news and features from the Centre from the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation.

Community helping climate.

How to tackle climate change using a social generative approach including sacrifice and ecological design, as drawn from examples studied at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation.

A fully manned UN armored personnel carrier driving full throttle into the training ground.

The new Lab seeks to spot climate-related conflict before it occurs and pre-empt it through socio-ecological action.

Citizen Zoo keepers.

An organisation supported by Cambridge Judge Business School is on a mission to reintroduce wildlife back into nature with help from non-expert Citizen Keepers in the community.

Top