Women's Work Lab recognised by Cambridge University with Social Innovation Prize

Our Co-Founders recently went to Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge to join the 3 other winners of the 2024 Cambridge Social Innovation prize! This prestigious award is organised by the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation and Rachel and Camilla are the first ever joint award winners.

Camilla and Rachel with the other brilliant Award winners

Here is more information from Cambridge:


"Five exceptional social entrepreneurs and their four ventures have been recognised for their achievements and ambition in creating social change through business.

Winners of the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize for 2024 have been selected for their achievements and potential creating positive social impact for individuals and communities in different parts of the UK through education and training, sport and music.

These awards are made annually to extraordinary founder-CEOs of scale-up social enterprises to support their growth as leaders. Uniquely, the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize recognises mid-career social innovators with a proven track record, but who could benefit from support to reach the next level. The prize includes a £10,000 cash award for personal and professional development. Additionally, mentoring from experts from Cambridge Social Ventures at Cambridge Judge Business School and support from an expanding community of social innovators at Trinity Hall will help them to develop the skills, resources, and networks they need to create more impact from their work."

Alongside Camilla and Rachel the other winners are:

The winners are:

  • Izzy Obeng – co-founder of Foundervine, a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem renowned for its accelerators and investment readiness programs, actively breaking barriers for early and scaling-stage businesses, particularly those underrepresented.

  • Daryl Chambers – founder and CEO of InPower Academy CIC, a social venture which harnesses the power of martial arts to transform the lives of young people in Wolverhampton, especially those living in areas impacted by crime.

  • JR Josephs – founder and CEO of Sirlute, a Black- and lived-experience led CIO that provides creative learning activities in music/multimedia/fashion for at-risk young people.

Camilla and Rachel with one of the judges Baroness Glenys Thornton

Camilla and Rachel on winning the prize:

“As Co-Founders we’ve been heads down since 2018 setting up and building the Women’s Work Lab into what it is now. We’re hugely proud of the progress we’ve made but would like to create greater impact across the UK for more Mums and we feel that this prize could be the catalyst for our next phase of growth. Absolutely chuffed to bits! A huge shock and honour to be recognised as it’s always really daunting to apply for something as prestigious as this. We always want to highlight how special our Mums are and knowing that their voices and stories will be told at the University of Cambridge is super exciting.”

Hear more from Camilla and Rachel in this episode of the Social Innovation: The Social Ideas Podcast

Camilla Rigby