Show Notes 177: Trinity Bradfield Prize 2026: How Cambridge's Best Young Founders Are Solving Climate and Quantum

The Trinity Bradfield Prize is back, and this year's cohort of winners is nothing short of brilliant. If you're a founder, investor, or simply someone who gets excited about deep tech solving real problems, this episode is essential listening.

Launched in 2018, the Trinity Bradfield Prize has supported over 500 teams and awarded £155,000 in prize money. But what sets it apart is It's genuinely rigorous. Teams submit technical papers that undergo expert review, and the judging panel—chaired by Nobel Laureate Sir Greg Winter—digs deep into the science and technology rather than just assessing pitch polish.

As James Parton explains: "This isn't a superficial pitch competition where you're picking people's ability to present. There's actually the expertise in the judging room to really go deep on the technology and the science."

This Year's Winners: Three Reasons to Be Excited

GreenMixes – Making Concrete a Carbon Sink

The first prize winners are tackling an 800-billion-pound market. Concrete accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions, and GreenMixes has developed a biochar-based admixture that locks up carbon whilst maintaining structural integrity. Their near-term plan? Producing 15 tons of admixture for pilot projects with local councils and educational institutions.

Maricene – Turning Seaweed Waste into Value

The Maricene team has engineered a salt-tolerant yeast strain that can process seaweed without freshwater treatment. With 70% of alginate processing waste currently going to landfill, the scalability is enormous. Prize funds will support patenting and pilot customer studies.

Phase Shift – Quantum Optics at Scale

The Phase Shift team are miniaturizing optics for quantum computing—taking bulky systems and moving them to chips. Being in Cambridge's quantum cluster means they can literally walk over the road to collaborate with companies like Nu Quantum. The prize money will fund conference attendance to build industry connections.

Pinepeak's Angel Prize

But there's a special story here. Savvas Gkantonas returned to pitch for a second year, and his wildfire prediction platform—built on jet engine combustion research—has made remarkable commercial progress. He won the newly introduced Angel Prize, recognising the team with the most impressive commercial development.

His honesty about the challenges is refreshing: "It's constant chaos within the team. We're struggling so much to prioritise." Yet Pinepeak is now generating revenue, has pilots running, and is targeting £20 million ARR within five years.

Tech News Roundup

Before diving into the prize, the episode opens with this weeks Cambridge tech headlines:

• Nu Quantum opens a Spanish subsidiary with €9.7M government backing, creating 30+ jobs

• Five UK banks pledge £11 billion to support domestic and international scaling

• University of Cambridge receives £36M to upgrade the Dawn supercomputer with 6x AI computing power

• Teraview becomes the first UK company to list on Korean KOSDAQ, raising $26M

Why You Should Listen

This isn't a feel-good competition recap. It's a masterclass in how rigorous evaluation, technical depth, and genuine community support can nurture founders solving the world's hardest problems. You'll hear directly from founders grappling with real challenges—resource constraints, market uncertainty, and the pressure of scaling—with refreshing honesty.

The Trinity Bradfield Prize represents what's possible when universities, investors, and mentors work together to support deep tech innovation.

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