Imperial College London Retrofit Accelerator (United Kingdom)

Deadline: 14 January 2024

The Imperial College London’s Retrofit Accelerator creates a pathway to growth and commercial success for a diverse range of climate startups who are ready to implement and scale up their solutions to the climate crisis across the built environment sector, with a particular focus on decarbonising buildings.

It offers a gateway into the London retrofit market, with the aim of unlocking the barriers to market entry, setting the foundation for a successful commercial scale up and reducing London’s greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

Powered by Imperial College London, via Undaunted and Enterprise, the Retrofit Accelerator is part of the Greater London Authority’s Better Futures programme, co-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Imperial College London and Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment values equity, diversity, and inclusion to improve representation across all its programmes and partnerships.

Programme Phases

Preliminary workshop to identify:
- individual challenges and needs for the cohort members
- collective challenges and co-develop ideas where practical action can be explored during the cohort activities
- opportunities for practical implementation of innovations in pilot projects
Cohort activities (to run concurrently):
- Track 1: SME support – provision of individual support to each SME
- Track 2: Tackling challenges – sub-groups set up to explore and tackle each of the collective challenges identified
- Track 3: Delivering innovation – SMEs pitch for involvement in a pilot project
Pilot phase: delivery of pilot implementation and test installations.
Dissemination workshop to share the outcome of the project with the cohort, stakeholders and other interested parties

Programme Benefits

Select participants from the cohort will get the opportunity to get access to:
- R&D advice
- internships
- technical workspace
- a network of key industry stakeholders
- demonstration trials and deployment of low-carbon building innovations

What are they looking for?

The Retrofit Accelerator is looking for high-potential innovative climatetech SMEs and businesses whose technologies can provide a significant impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the built environment retrofit sector. Innovations in physical and digital technologies, but not limited to:
- building materials
- building systems
- energy solutions
- digital products
- other advisory services

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility for businesses to participate in the cohort:
- London-based
- classified as in the LCEGS (Low Carbon Environmental Goods and Services) sector
- developing products or services suitable for the retrofit sector which have the potential to save significant green-house gas emissions
- ready to implement and scale up their solutions
They encourage people from underserved communities to apply and recognise under-representation of women, minority ethnic groups, disabled persons, neurodivergent persons, and the LGBTQI+ community in the startup portfolios.
To bridge this gap, Undaunted encourages applications from people of all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities.

For more information, visit Imperial College London.