ICB CDT & Cambridge Sensor CDT Responsible Research and Innovation Retreat 2026

Students from the Institute of Chemical Biology CDT & Cambridge University's Sensor CDT attend the Responsible Research and Innovation Retreat in January 2026.

The Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB) CDT students were joined by the Cambridge Sensor CDT for the first time at the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) 4-day retreat based in Windsor Great Park.

This retreat has been collaboratively designed by the ICB CDT and the University of Edinburgh's Department of Science, Technology & Innovation Studies; Dr Sophie Stone and Dr Robert Smith, who host the course.

The content covers topics such as ethics, foresight, communication, negotiation and impact, explaining why RRI is important and demonstrating frameworks such as AREA. This year included workshops from experts such as Filippo Cuttica, Design Director for Interaction Design at LEGO and Cassandra Hugill, CEO of the Martingale Foundation. There were also representatives from Syngenta, FreshCheck, Cumberland Lodge, Imperial Policy Forum and Cambridge University Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

Some of the activities were expanded and updated this year, including an interactive interview series, from which we received lots of positive student feedback including:

"It was interesting and helped me to feel more confident in speaking."

"It made me put myself in others shoes and consider how best to present myself and my research to engage various audiences."

They also had plenty of downtime to explore Windsor Great Park and team building opportunities, you can see their Rube Goldberg machine below!