Cohort 11 (F2F CDT) successfully present their project proposals to the ‘Dragons’ at the annual event, which took place 19 - 20 June 2025 at Breadsall Priory in Derbyshire.

As a part of their CDT training, first year students are tasked with developing their own research project ideas, writing a project proposal and pitching the proposal to a panel of ‘Dragons’ at the CDT annual Dragons’ Den event.  This year’s panel of Dragons included academics from both University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent as well as representatives from industry ( Croda, Lubrizol, Unilever, Promethean particles and AZ) and students from other CDT Cohorts. The 'dragons' were tasked with challenging the presentations, providing helpful feedback and suggestions, they also considered students’ ability to ‘think on their feet’ by dealing with a wide range of questions from 'dragons' from different disciplinary backgrounds. Well done to all our students who took part!

Day 2 of the event had a very different format to previous years, the CDT welcomed older cohorts to the event and ran a series of workshops including a talk from an industrial partner, industry flash presentations and a panel, a challenge workshop and EDI workshop, the students found the event extremely interesting and suggested this type of format should continue in the future. Big thank you to all those involved.