innovation leaders residency
AWARDING INNOVATIVE LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SUPERVISION WITH TAILORED SUPPORT AND ACCESS TO UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES
Are you ready to lead the digital transformation of financial sector supervision? Do you want to drive innovation and the growth of the global suptech movement? We invite you to embark on a transformative journey with the Cambridge SupTech Lab Innovation Leaders Residency programme.
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
We invite current employees of financial authorities in roles such as supervisors, examiners, data scientists, statisticians, economists, and other related positions to join this 12-month part-time, remote programme.
As an Innovation Leader, you may be awarded:
Unique training: To enhance your skills and competencies.
Networking and speaking opportunities: To raise your international profile as a leader in financial supervision.
Mentorship and research support: To bring your ideas to life and contribute to the development of new suptech solutions.
The next application period will open in October 2025
The application form will first ask about your contact details and role, followed by short questions about the impact you hope to have and the suptech related project you would like to prioritize during the Residency year. You will be able to submit your CV or other supporting information.
Please contact e.resch@jbs.cam.ac.uk with questions or comments.
Eligibility, Benefits & responsibilities
Are you interested in joining the next cohort of the Innovation Leaders Residency? Review the eligibility criteria, benefits and responsibilities below.
To be eligible you must:
- Be currently employed at a financial authority.
- Have a track record of implementing innovative strategies and be motivated to accelerate digital transformation through suptech solutions.
- Identify a concrete suptech related project to take forward during the Residency year in the area of research or solutions development.
- Be available (part-time, remotely) from December 2025 to December 2026.
As an innovation leader, you’ll enjoy:
- A custom training curriculum combining upskilling on soft skills such as communications and project management, and technical skills such as innovation change management.
- Authoring and speaking opportunities.
- Closed-door symposium participation.
- Travel support for leaders from emerging markets and developing economies.
- Peer collaboration and networking.
- One-to-one mentoring.
- Research support.
- Opportunity to enroll in courses by the Cambridge SupTech Lab and
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance free of charge.
In return we ask you to:
- Commit to engage with your peers and suptech experts for the length of the programme.
- Share your learnings with the suptech community in the form of authoring articles, teaching and mentoring, as well as speaking at international events.
- Dedicate time to advancing your suptech related research and implementation efforts.
- Remain with your agency for two years after programme conclusion.
Timeline
STEP 1: SELECTION PROCESS
Individuals can nominate themselves and/or others to be considered for the Innovation Leaders Residency. An expert panel will review all applications and contact final candidates for a short interview.
STEP 2: ANNOUNCEMENT
Selected innovation leaders confirm their participation. The inaugural cohort of Resident Innovation Leaders will be announced at SupTech Week 2025.
STEP 3: ONBOARDING
Selected innovation leaders will embark on their residency journey and receive a holistic introduction to all opportunities ahead.
STEP 4: OFFBOARDING
Innovation leaders conclude their residency journey by sharing their experiences, progress, and challenges at SupTech Week 2026.
While we encourage our leaders to allocate time to immerse themselves in suptech-related research and implementation efforts, we also understand your busy schedule. Our goal is to empower you to enhance your capabilities, becoming more effective and efficient in your work, rather than adding to your burdens.
As the programme offers a range of optional opportunities, the time commitment will be flexible and tailored to your unique interests. On average, we estimate that each leader will invest approximately 10 hours per month in the Innovation Leaders Residency.
meet the 2025 cohort of innovation leaders
This year’s cohort is tackling a range of critical challenges, from leveraging geospatial analysis to improve insurance accessibility in Kenya and enhancing ESG oversight with advanced analytics in Brazil to strengthening cyber risk supervision through AI-driven innovations in Namibia. Whether they are developing AI-powered regulatory reporting solutions or researching tools for digital assets supervision, these leaders are leveraging technology and data to shape the future of financial oversight in their regions.
meet the 2024 cohort of innovation leaders
Over the course of the Residency year, Innovation Leaders gained support for the enhancement of their skills and competencies, and assistance in taking their projects to the next level, whether they are focusing on implementing the digital transformation of their business unit or on driving the development of a cutting-edge suptech application.
In their Residency projects, the 2024 cohort addressed a variety of critical challenges including establishing training frameworks for supervisors in data management, developing institution-wide AI strategies, and designing suptech tools for social media monitoring and market conduct supervision.
