St Andrews: The Entrepreneurship Centre

The Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of St Andrews opened its doors for the first time in September 2021. In the space of just a few months, the centre has had fantastic success by integrating itself into the university eco-system by providing practical entrepreneurship training to help turn ideas and research into a commercial reality. Across 4 structured programmes covering for-profit enterprise, social entrepreneurship, web development and cloud computing, the training allows participants to develop their ideas further. Alongside the programmes, the centre hosts a busy events calendar including Lunch & Learn workshops, regular pitching sessions and a fantastic Speaker Series. The centre also provides support to university spinouts who have collectively raised £1.2m in non-dilutive funding. Lastly, the centre plays a key role in supporting consultancy projects for the university.

Durham University’s “Game Changer” Included in United Nations SDG Publication

Durham University’s Game Changer programme has been chosen by the United Nations to feature in their “SDG Good Practices: A compilation of success stories and lessons learned in SDG Implementation” publication. Chosen from over 700 submissions down to 21, the case study tells how over 500 students have participated in the programme since 2019. Game Changer uses design thinking tools to enable students to generate solutions to problems highlighted by the SDGs. Click here to read the publication. If you would like a copy of Durham University’s Game Changer toolkit to run the programme with your own students, email rachel.bickerdike@durham.ac.uk.

RGU: engages Regional Startup Accelerator finalists to compete for £80,000 in prize funding

Robert Gordon University successfully hosted their fourth annual Regional Startup Accelerator Programme showcase event, where £80,000 in prize funding were given out to the entrepreneurial teams. At the event, nine finalists got to pitch their business ideas in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. This year 36 teams have taken part in the program and have come up with a broad variety of ideas, ranging from clean energy to safety technology and more. Find out which teams won, by watching the event online and learn who got awarded cash prizes in categories such as ‘Climate Impact Award’ or ‘Regional Impact Award’.

Imperial College: Launch of new podcast

The Imperial Enterprise Lab has recently launched a brand new podcast Black & Found, focusing on amplifying the entrepreneurial journeys of Black/Black mixed heritage founders. The concept of the podcast was inspired by statistics highlighting the lack of investment, promotion and exposure of Black led ventures. The first series welcomes guests with an association to Imperial College London including alumni and one of their Imperial Venture Mentoring Service mentors. Please tune in, be inspired and share!

University of Nottingham: YES22 rethinking the future

YES22 is open for applications! Calling STEM PhDs, postdocs, technicians, early career academics and knowledge exchange professionals, to take part this autumn in Biotechnology YES, Engineering YES or Environment YES to gain commercial awareness and business skills from leading entrepreneurs and practitioners. YES is a global competition for those wishing to deploy novel science and engineering to address environmental and societal challenges. This year’s prize fund is £10k+. Discover more here; join one of our 30-minute online information sessions or help raise awareness.