Founder, ZERO Institute Founders Programme

The ZERO Institute, University of Oxford (https://zero.ox.ac.uk), is excited to launch the residential ZERO Institute’s Founders Programme, enabling Founders to develop and deliver world-changing Climate Tech through accelerated lab-to-market translation. We are appointing three inaugural one-year residential posts to undertake Climate Tech research translation at the University of Oxford. Postholders will provide an original idea to commercialise zero/low carbon research, with potential to deliver significant reductions in global CO2 emissions. Each Founder will be supported to establish a Climate Tech venture with a proven unique selling point, a well-developed business plan and protected IP. Each Founder will have access to university labs and facilities, an academic sponsor, business development and incubation support, and the wider network of the ZERO Institute and the University of Oxford. The three posts are supported by Breakthrough Energy, the Quadrature Climate Foundation, Oxford Science Enterprises, and other sources.

At the ZERO Institute we are committed to upholding equality, diversity and inclusion throughout our work, and applications from a wide pool of candidates are encouraged.

Applicants are required to submit:

• Application Form (template provided), that details the basis of your innovation idea, your market understanding and a proposed plan for your employment in the Founders programme (maximum 2000 words).
• Curriculum Vitae, detailing your track record in research and innovation, your career history and evidence of your core skills relevant to the Founders programme.
• Concise Supporting Statement of maximum two pages, explaining how you meet the above selection criteria, with an emphasis on Essential Criteria 3-7 and Desirable Criterion 1 in the Job Description.
• Letter of Support from an Oxford faculty member (the ‘Academic Sponsor’), detailing the importance of your idea and how they and/or their research group can help your journey, and confirming that their department would be willing to host you if successful. Candidates must identify their Academic Sponsor from the University of Oxford. Several faculty members operating in Climate Tech research domains can be found at https://www.energy.ox.ac.uk/people/ and at https://zero.ox.ac.uk/about/people/. Prior to application, your Academic Sponsor is welcome to request further information on the programme, by contacting Andy Gilchrist (andy.gilchrist@mpls.ox.ac.uk).
• As part of your application, you will be asked to provide details of two referees and indicate whether we can contact them now.

Please upload all documents as PDF files with your name and the document type in the filename. All applications must be received by midday UK time on Wednesday 24 June 2026.

We aim to conduct interviews, possibly in person in Oxford, in the week of 13 July 2026.