Line Manager: Oliver Cressall (Founders’ Associate)
Pathways Programme: Pathways to Marketing
Summary of Organisation: Venturenomix is a leading consultancy specialising in research, development, and innovation (RDI) grant writing. We support ambitious businesses across the UK and Europe in identifying, applying for, and successfully managing competitive grant funding opportunities. With a sector-agnostic approach, we work across a diverse range of industries, though much of our focus is on cutting-edge technologies, including AI, healthtech, renewable energy, deeptech, and more. Over the past 15 years, we have secured over £100 million in non-dilutive funding, enabling breakthrough innovations to scale and commercialise effectively.
How did hosting an intern via the Professional Pathways programme benefit you and your organisation?
“Hosting an intern through the Professional Pathways programme allowed our team to complete a set of ongoing marketing projects that we had not had capacity to finish: writing sector pages and blogs outlining the different target sectors and themes within our ideal customer profiles.
The project involved identifying the sectors we write R&D grants for and producing website copy for a dedicated sector page for each one. This required researching relevant UK government and EU Commission policy aligned with our work, sourcing recent success stories and case studies from clients we have worked with, and identifying upcoming R&D funding opportunities and strategic changes relevant to each sector. Our intern focused on three sectors: agri-tech and agriculture; smart cities and infrastructure; and marine technology and the blue economy. They also contributed to our social media strategy, writing a number of LinkedIn posts covering upcoming events in our sector.
This work freed up our team to focus on other pressing priorities while building valuable top-of-funnel marketing content for future prospects. As a remote-first team, the benefits of this work reach across our whole organisation, and our intern adapted well to remote working, with regular check-ins and updates throughout the week.
We will take this work forward by publishing the sector pages and blogs on our website and creating a dedicated landing page for each topic. These will be shared directly with new clients during onboarding and used within our sales pipeline, helping demonstrate our aptitude and capacity as one of the most capable and trusted R&D grant-writing teams in the UK. In turn, this supports our ability to secure R&D grant funding for clients working on projects with real community and sector-wide impact, including in agriculture, infrastructure, and marine sustainability.”
How was your experience of hosting a Pathways intern?
“The entire process went smoothly. Our intern worked remotely, as we are a remote-first company, and this suited the nature of the work well.
Before the internship began, we spoke directly with both the Professional Pathways team and the intern to align on expectations and the scope of work involved. This upfront alignment meant we had no major challenges to manage – communication throughout the week was straightforward and easy. We didn’t need to set up any new email accounts or processes; instead, we created a shared folder within our existing online workspace dedicated to the intern’s work, which kept everything organised and easy to access.
To structure the week, we held a 20-minute morning meeting each day to catch up and align on priorities for that day, alongside regular ad hoc check-ins once work had been completed. We also scheduled two one-hour sessions during the week to work together on a specific piece of work for one of the sectors, which gave the intern dedicated time for deeper collaboration beyond the daily check-ins.
Our main piece of advice for managing a remote intern is to invest time upfront in aligning on expectations before the internship starts, and to build a lightweight but consistent daily rhythm (a short morning check-in works well) rather than relying solely on ad hoc communication. This gives the intern a clear structure to work within while still allowing flexibility around deeper collaborative sessions.”
Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, how would you recommend ensuring both you and your intern(s) gain as much as possible from the experience?
“Before the internship started, we confirmed the scope of work and expectations with both the intern and the Professional Pathways team, so everyone was aligned from day one on what the work would involve. We also made a point of asking the intern directly what they personally wanted to gain from the 35 hours – whether that was a particular skill, exposure to a certain type of work, or a specific outcome. Understanding this early on meant we could shape tasks that genuinely motivated them.
So, simply put some things that worked well for us was to hold regular check-ins, agree clear expectations upfront, and take the time to understand what the intern themselves wants to get out of the experience.
This approach made it easier to see how the intern’s interests aligned with our ongoing marketing projects, so the work felt purposeful on both sides. To keep things on track across the short timeframe, we relied on regular daily check-ins rather than infrequent, longer reviews – this made it easy to spot early if something needed adjusting.”