It is that time of year again, and hasn’t it come round quickly? As we introduce you to the cohort for Central Research Laboratory’s 2021 accelerator program, there are some similarities from last year, but also a number of exciting changes.

As we now know, this year’s CRL cohort is slightly different with a larger number of startups initially involved, and then after a six-week period, a hackathon and a pitch day, six will be chosen to continue on the accelerator programme. I got the chance to catch up with all 18 startups, to find out a little bit about the founders, the business, their big ideas and some of the challenges they have faced with their products and proof of concepts so far.