Join us in partnership with Convergent Research, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency & Meridial for the next dynamic Venture Cafe Cambridge Connect, where we'll explore the launch of the UK's first ever Focused Research Organisations.
Focused Research Organisations are a new institutional model designed to tackle ambitious, societally consequential scientific challenges that fall outside the scope of traditional labs or startups, launched in the UK by ARIA & Convergent Research. Through a moderated conversation and lightning talks from those launching FROs, join us to learn what this model means and how they operate, how ARIA’s scientific organizing principle supports this model, and how Meridial aim to use the approach to tackle large-scale brain mapping.
This event is designed to be substantive: you’ll leave understanding not only what FROs can build, but why this structure exists and what it unlocks for UK science. Join us and explore how Cambridge’s ambitious scientists and founders could access new models for funding, building and scaling.
In partnership with:
There will be meaningful networking opportunities throughout the night, accompanied by a selection of refreshments and activities.
Take a moment to pause, create, and connect. Led by Cambridge-based artist Lucia Lutonska, this hands-on watercolour workshop offers a gentle creative break from the evening's programme, a chance to slow down, focus, and make something with your hands. No experience needed. Whether you pick up a brush for the first time or simply enjoy the process, this session is a quiet nod to the evening's broader themes of wellbeing, connection, and the ways people and ideas come together.
Join us for welcome remarks from Venture Café's team, Innovate Cambridge & Convergent Research.
We'll be joined by Sarah Bohndiek, Programme Director at ARIA, in conversation with Kristin Ellis, Partner at Convergent Research, on ARIA’s scientific organising principle, the origins of Focused Research Organisations (FROs), the gaps they fill that traditional research institutions cannot, and why this model matters for the UK.
Join us for a conversation with Mehmet Fisek, CEO of Meridial, the newly launched UK Focused Research Organisation working to map the living brain at scale.
In conversation with Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig from the Maxwell Centre, this session will explore how Meridial is using the FRO model to tackle the large-scale challenge of mapping the living brain, why this requires a new institutional structure, and what it could unlock for neuroscience and beyond.
Sarah is Professor in the Department of Physics and a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge. Sarah is also co-director of the £16m EPSRC Optical and Acoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Sciences Hub with Prof. Dan Stoyanov at UCL and Prof Dan Elson at Imperial College London. Sarah is currently on secondment at the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) co-directing research funding of more than £100m, including the Forecasting Tipping Points programme.
Building and launching FROs in the UK in partnership with ARIA focused on genetic engineering, connectomics, AI, and climate.
Mehmet Fisek is the Founder & CEO of UK FRO Meridial. Mehmet is a neurophysiologist by training, with extensive experience developing cutting-edge methods for in vivo physiology and biophysics in multiple model systems including crabs, fruitflies and mice.
Lucia Lutonska is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in South Cambridgeshire. She combines structured techniques and intuitive methods to navigate the territory between the familiar and the unknown across painting, mixed media, poetry, and movement. Her work investigates perception, processes of healing and the inner search for wholeness. Her vast non-conceptual landscapes invite viewers into contemplative spaces that merge sensory experience with emotional exploration.
Join us in partnership with Convergent Research, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency & Meridial for the next dynamic Venture Cafe Cambridge Connect, where we'll explore the launch of the UK's first ever Focused Research Organisations.
Focused Research Organisations are a new institutional model designed to tackle ambitious, societally consequential scientific challenges that fall outside the scope of traditional labs or startups, launched in the UK by ARIA & Convergent Research. Through a moderated conversation and lightning talks from those launching FROs, join us to learn what this model means and how they operate, how ARIA’s scientific organizing principle supports this model, and how Meridial aim to use the approach to tackle large-scale brain mapping.
This event is designed to be substantive: you’ll leave understanding not only what FROs can build, but why this structure exists and what it unlocks for UK science. Join us and explore how Cambridge’s ambitious scientists and founders could access new models for funding, building and scaling.
In partnership with:
There will be meaningful networking opportunities throughout the night, accompanied by a selection of refreshments and activities.
Take a moment to pause, create, and connect. Led by Cambridge-based artist Lucia Lutonska, this hands-on watercolour workshop offers a gentle creative break from the evening's programme, a chance to slow down, focus, and make something with your hands. No experience needed. Whether you pick up a brush for the first time or simply enjoy the process, this session is a quiet nod to the evening's broader themes of wellbeing, connection, and the ways people and ideas come together.
Join us for welcome remarks from Venture Café's team, Innovate Cambridge & Convergent Research.
We'll be joined by Sarah Bohndiek, Programme Director at ARIA, in conversation with Kristin Ellis, Partner at Convergent Research, on ARIA’s scientific organising principle, the origins of Focused Research Organisations (FROs), the gaps they fill that traditional research institutions cannot, and why this model matters for the UK.
Join us for a conversation with Mehmet Fisek, CEO of Meridial, the newly launched UK Focused Research Organisation working to map the living brain at scale.
In conversation with Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig from the Maxwell Centre, this session will explore how Meridial is using the FRO model to tackle the large-scale challenge of mapping the living brain, why this requires a new institutional structure, and what it could unlock for neuroscience and beyond.
Sarah is Professor in the Department of Physics and a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge. Sarah is also co-director of the £16m EPSRC Optical and Acoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Sciences Hub with Prof. Dan Stoyanov at UCL and Prof Dan Elson at Imperial College London. Sarah is currently on secondment at the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) co-directing research funding of more than £100m, including the Forecasting Tipping Points programme.
Building and launching FROs in the UK in partnership with ARIA focused on genetic engineering, connectomics, AI, and climate.
Mehmet Fisek is the Founder & CEO of UK FRO Meridial. Mehmet is a neurophysiologist by training, with extensive experience developing cutting-edge methods for in vivo physiology and biophysics in multiple model systems including crabs, fruitflies and mice.
Lucia Lutonska is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in South Cambridgeshire. She combines structured techniques and intuitive methods to navigate the territory between the familiar and the unknown across painting, mixed media, poetry, and movement. Her work investigates perception, processes of healing and the inner search for wholeness. Her vast non-conceptual landscapes invite viewers into contemplative spaces that merge sensory experience with emotional exploration.