Enterprise Lab celebrates success at National Enterprise Education Awards

Imperial Enterprise Lab has been recognised at the National Enterprise Educators Awards 2025, celebrating excellence in enterprise education.

The Lab’s Venture Mentoring service won the prestigious Enterprise Catalyst Award, while Sara Roberts was named Rising Star, and Victoria Nicholl received a Highly Commended recognition in the Pioneer in Enterprise Education category. 

The awards were presented at the International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference, where the Enterprise Lab also contributed to the agenda. Nadia Ahrazem delivered a talk showcasing the success of the Imperial’s flagship WE Innovate programme and its expansion onto the national stage. 

Enterprise Catalyst Award: Imperial Venture Mentoring 

Launched in 2017, Imperial Venture Mentoring (IVM) is the university's flagship mentoring service delivered by Enterprise Lab and inspired by the MIT Venture Mentoring model. The programme matches Imperial students, staff and alumni founders with teams of impartial, volunteer mentors, creating long-term advisory relationships that help venture teams build confidence, strategy and resilience. 

These awards highlight the breadth of impact we’re having, from nurturing early-career talent, to building a supportive mentoring community, to pioneering new ways to support women entrepreneurs. Ben Mumby-Croft Director of Entrepreneurship

To date, IVM has supported over 170 ventures, with venture teams collectively raising £192 million+ and creating more than 500 jobs. Ventures supported include pioneering companies such as Koalaa , Jelly Drops, and Shellworks. 

The programme has been recognised for its structured, scalable and inclusive model, which embeds rigorous onboarding, psychological safety, and 'unconflicted' mentorship.

Beyond one-to-one support, initiatives such as the Founder Roundtables, the Imperial Founders Network, and the Advancement Allies scheme to further extend and unlock philanthropic support for entrepreneurial education. 

Dominique Kleyn, Chair of Imperial Venture Mentoring, said: “The impact of Imperial Venture Mentoring speaks for itself and is the fantastic result of a highly structured and well-supported process that has been established over many years. The Enterprise Catalyst Award recognises the achievements of both the Enterprise team at Imperial and, importantly, the expertise and generosity of our exceptional volunteer mentors, without whom this scale of support would not be possible.”  

Rising Star Award: Sara Roberts 

Joining the Lab in 2024 as Incubation Services Manager, Sara Roberts has already made a transformative impact, leading several flagship initiatives and designing inclusive, practical tools for founders. 

She manages the Green Tech Legal Collaborative, a partnership with Bloomberg and 12 law firms that has delivered over £6 million of pro bono legal support to climate-tech startups, and co-created Project Janus, which brought law students together with startups to co-design founder-friendly legal processes. 

Sara has also launched the ForDifferent Design Prize, providing £30,000 of brand strategy support to a cleantech startup, and developed two highly valued self-serve resources: the Resource Finder, a curated library of 100+ tools, and the Peer-Recommended Supplier List. 

Her work was commended for its entrepreneurial mindset, operational excellence and values-led approach, establishing her as an emerging leader in enterprise education with the potential to shape practice across the sector. 

Pioneer in Enterprise Education (Highly Commended): Victoria Nicholl 

As Head of Incubation Services, Victoria Nicholl has played a pivotal role in professionalising and expanding Imperial’s enterprise support ecosystem. Since 2019 she has grown the Lab’s Experts-in-Residence programme from seven to over 110 domain experts, scaled IVM from 38 to 83 mentors, and co-founded the Network for Coaching and Mentoring Entrepreneurs, which now connects over 120 practitioners across the UK. 

She has also co-led EarthScale, a £5 million Research England-funded collaboration supporting seed-stage climate ventures on their path to Series A, and spearheaded multiple international Venture Treks to help Imperial startups secure funding, partnerships and customers abroad. 

Recognition of impact 

Ben Mumby-Croft, Director of Entrepreneurship at Imperial College London, said: 

“We’re thrilled to see the team’s hard work and creativity recognised on the national stage. These awards highlight the breadth of impact we’re having, from nurturing early-career talent, to building a supportive mentoring community, to pioneering new ways to support women entrepreneurs. I couldn’t be prouder of Sara, Victoria, Olivia, Amy and our Venture Mentoring community. We’re excited to keep pushing the boundaries of what entrepreneurship education can achieve.” 

If you’re interested in working with the Enterprise Lab or supporting its activities, please visit the Lab's website.