Undaunted has a paid internship opportunity available - find out more about joining the team!

Undaunted aims to make London and the UK a great place to start and scale innovative climate solutions, bringing together innovators, corporates, investors, policymakers, academics and the public to drive the transition to a green economy.

An exciting opportunity

We are looking for a candidate who's passionate about climate innovation to help us get a new initiative started.

Imperial College London has secured two years of London Shared Prosperity funding (SPF) as part of the Better Futures 3.0 team led by the Greater London Authority (GLA), West London Business and Sustainable Ventures, to deliver economic growth and increase climate action in London through a range of support activities for small businesses.

This exciting new project will support the success of climate start-ups and scale ups through a new type of support that brings together early-stage businesses with policy makers, users of their products and other stakeholders.  The purpose of these interventions is to get useful innovations into use in demonstrations at scale to help the built environment implement climate solutions whilst simultaneously creating conditions for successful business scale up.

Join the team!

We are looking for an intern to help us get this new programme up and running, working with the Director of Undaunted, members of Imperial’s enterprise team and the new team running the Better Futures 3.0 programme to secure partners, scope out the first steps of the programme and prepare for delivery.

This post is an excellent opportunity to work in the Undaunted team and across the London climate innovation ecosystem. The candidate will gain an overview of how Undaunted supports cleantech startups, the barriers they face when trying to scale, and the  current situation in the field of climate change innovation. The internship will be guided and supported by the Director of Undaunted, Alyssa Gilbert, with some additional day to day activities led by specific relevant staff members.

This is a paid internship at a rate of £15.00-£21.00/hour depending on the qualifications of the applicant.

Application Deadline: 15 September 2023.

Details of the internship

We expect an internship that takes place full time over 3-4 months, depending on your situation. Please note, Undaunted currently in a hybrid working phase. Some work might be possible remotely, and otherwise the intern may be invited to join us at one of our locations:  Imperial College in South Kensington, the Undaunted site at the Royal Institution, 21 Albermarle St. Mayfair or the Imperial College Campus in White City. In our offices the normal hours of work are 9.00am – 5.00pm but flexibility in working hours is possible. We may ask the student to do some additional hours in evening during the week for events.

The internship will focus on the following dimensions:

• Supporting the delivery of our Better Futures 3.0 programme, working with the Director of Undaunted to help identify and secure partners and scope out the next steps in our work, assisting with delivery of the programme as it starts in full in October 2023 (approx. 2.5 days/week)
• Continuing to drive forward our Women in Cleantech programme, building on our existing work and programme of activity, participating in the design and delivery of an event in November and a suite of other activities. (approx. 1 day/week)
• Supporting our marketing and communication activities creating ideas for new projects and assets with our start ups to spread information about exciting climate change innovation (approx.. 1 days/week)
• Support for some of the practical dimensions of the Greenhouse activities around events planning and delivery(approx. 0.5 day/week)

Job description and key responsibilities

Supporting the delivery of the Better Futures 3.0. This will likely include:

• Coordinating the internal Imperial team and central Teams online site to ensure that the group is well-coordinated.
• Working with the Director of Undaunted to identify and reach out to appropriate stakeholders I the built environment to join the project, and to attend a workshop. Planning and attending meetings to discuss the project with these stakeholders and their role in it.
• Working with the Director of Undaunted to identify and recruit the first cohort of start ups and scale ups for the Better Futures 3.0 programme.
• Adding detail to the initial plan for the scope of the Better Futures 3.0 programme, gathering information from a range of stakeholders in anticipation of the project team’s start in October.
• Supporting the implementation of the Better Futures 3.0 programme form October onwards.

Continuing to implement the work programme proposed, for Undaunted’s activity to support Women in Cleantech. This will likely include:

• Overseeing the £10,000 budget for delivering activity around supporting Women in Cleantech
• Meeting with our key Project Manager contact at the Greater London Authority, on a fortnightly basis, to provide updates on our Women in Cleantech work and discuss/receive feedback on ideas
•  Ensuring the online space for document sharing (Microsoft Team) between Undaunted and the GLA is maintained
• Continuing to determine the scope for Undaunted’s Women in Cleantech network and what the value offering might be as part of this network
•  Identifying and attending existing events around supporting underrepresented groups within climate tech, to form a stronger idea around which activities might be most valuable for Undaunted to deliver and how Undaunted might be best placed to support entrepreneurs from such groups
•  Delivering an event in early November 

Delivering a number of communications and marketing activities:

• Working directly with the communications and marketing lead, Claudia Cannon, to develop new ideas for communications and marketing projects, particularly a project to introduce images of our start ups in our workspaces.
• Costing these projects and identifying delivery partners
• Working with the start ups to deliver some communications outputs (e.g. blogs, images, infographics etc.)
• Working closely with the Greenhouse team to support climate innovation start-ups, experts and stakeholders to ensure smooth operation of the Greenhouse and broader events and activities (e.g., take care of the scheduling, booking, mailings and communication with the stakeholders). One particular activity will involve the delivery of a social event in October 2023 for the climate entrepreneurs club.
• Taking a proactive role in shaping the internship as suits the candidate’s interests and the needs of the organisation

Requirements

• A real team player
• Demonstrable interest in Climate innovation ecosystem and awareness of key relevant stakeholders within London
• Demonstrable interest in tackling climate change in the built environment in particular
• Enthusiastic, with creative approach
• Strong communication skills
• Good time management skills
• Good interpersonal skills
• Attention to detail
• The ability to self-manage, with good organisational and planning skills
• Self-motivated to continuously expand personal and professional knowledge
• Ability to use MS Office products (Excel, PowerPoint and Word)

Desirable

• Awareness of the Adobe Suite (InDesign & Photoshop)
• Experience in organising events and budget management
• An appreciation of the value of networking and creative ideas around how to ensure a network is of value to members and self-sustaining
• Awareness of the importance and a passion for, fostering female entrepreneurship and addressing the funding gap for female led businesses in the UK

Application process

Please send an email explaining your interest directly to the team at undaunted@imperial.ac.uk.

The application should include a short up to date CV and a short application covering letter. The latter should clearly set out your relevant knowledge and experience in the area you are applying for, and your motivation and interest in supporting climate innovation and the projects described above.

This is a paid internship at a rate of £15.00-£21.00/hour depending on the qualifications of the applicant.

Application Deadline: 15 September 2023.

We will get back to you by 22 September and may invite you to a short interview before selecting the final candidate.

Find out more

• Stay up-to-date by signing up to Undaunted's mailing list
• Meet some of our start-up alumni who've progressed though Undaunted's accelerator programme, The Greenhouse
• Got a question: contact the team at undaunted@imperial.ac.uk

Undaunted is Imperial College London’s climate change innovation activity, delivered in partnership with the Royal Institution and Imperial's Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment. 

It is backed by the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority (GLA), HSBC UK, the Grantham Foundation and a number of corporate members.