Supervisors and mentors
Challenge and support a learner team

Share your experience to help learners test assumptions, interpret evidence and reach independent judgements.

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Home / Training & Skills / Entrepreneurship & Commercialisation / Royce Catalyst / Royce Catalyst – Supervisors and Mentors

CHALLENGE THINKING. STRENGTHEN COMMERCIAL JUDGEMENT.

Royce Catalyst expands the UK’s capacity for advanced materials entrepreneurship by connecting founders and inventors with multidisciplinary learner teams who investigate the commercial feasibility of early-stage technologies.

Applications from supervisors and mentors are reviewed on a rolling basis. Royce Catalyst is in a growth phase, and we are actively expanding our pool to support future cohorts. There is no fixed deadline to apply.

Supervisors are central to this process. You guide teams as they apply entrepreneurial frameworks, helping them investigate markets, customers, risks and possible business models. Your input helps teams develop thoughtful, evidence-led insights for founders and inventors while building the mindsets and skills they can carry into future roles.

Mentors complement this work by offering occasional, focused insight when their experience is relevant to a team.

By joining as a supervisor or mentor, you’ll help build an entrepreneurial culture across the UK materials research community while expanding your own professional networks and sharpening your mentoring and coaching expertise.

SUPERVISOR ROLE

You’ll be matched with a multidisciplinary learner team working on an advanced materials project. Through structured supervision, you’ll help learners test assumptions, interpret evidence and reach independent conclusions.

Your commitment includes:

Launch Day and Pitch Day in Manchester
five online supervisions
short reports and final team feedback

A fixed programme contributor fee is offered to those with UK right to work.

You’ll also engage with new technologies and build relationships across the UK’s materials innovation ecosystem and with Royce.

MENTOR ROLE

Join a flexible pool of experienced people who offer occasional, focused insight when it is relevant to a learner team.

You can contribute entirely online through a targeted conversation, clinic or drop-in, or occasionally by making a relevant introduction. You choose whether and when to engage, depending on your experience and availability.

BENEFITS OF TAKING PART

The exchange works both ways. By taking part, you can:

Educational impact

Help learners develop entrepreneurial skills and commercial judgement they can carry into future roles.
Contribute to a stronger pipeline of people able to move advanced materials research towards real-world application.

Professional growth

Refine your own questioning, coaching and commercial thinking.
Engage with emerging materials technologies and gain fresh perspectives from researchers outside your immediate expertise.

Networks and contribution

Build relationships with founders, researchers and experienced peers from across the Royce community and wider UK innovation ecosystem.
Play an active role in strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation across the UK materials research community.

EXPERIENCE WE WELCOME

We welcome people with experience in areas such as:

entrepreneurship and venture building
technology commercialisation and transfer
founding or leading science and technology businesses
corporate innovation, R&D and product development
investment, finance and business growth
entrepreneurship education, coaching and mentoring
markets, sectors and commercial pathways relevant to advanced materials

You don’t need to be a materials scientist or have worked in every part of commercialisation. What matters is that you can listen well, ask thoughtful questions and help learners examine evidence, while leaving them responsible for their own work.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply online using this form. Applications are open throughout the year and reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisted applicants may be invited to a brief online interview.

Successful applicants join the Royce Catalyst supervisor pool and can indicate their project preferences. We match supervisors to projects according to their experience, expertise and availability, so not everyone in the pool will be assigned to a project in every cohort.

If you have any questions before getting started, please email the team at catalyst@royce.ac.uk.

Be part of the bigger picture

Royce Catalyst is more than a programme. It marks the start of a national effort to embed materials-centred entrepreneurship education, put technology translation into action, and ultimately support the UK’s advanced materials research base.

Whether you join as a student participant, founder, or supervisor, your involvement will help shape the culture, capacity, and community that drives material discoveries into real-world impact.

Questions? Contact us at catalyst@royce.ac.uk