Written by Lynn O'Byrne
Birmingham: Exciting Updates from UoB Elevate Program!
In November, UoB Elevate Incubator launched its 3rd Cohort of 24 startups, spanning socially conscious enterprises to tech innovators. The event connected alumni, partners, experts, and emerging entrepreneurs, fostering collaborations. The program provides tools, resources, and mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs, aiming to cultivate a community shaping the future of successful businesses. As we continue to build our ecosystem if you are interested in learning more, then please get in touch via benterprising@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Essex: Student Enterprise
Student enterprise is an increasingly necessary/popular offer at UK universities. More and more students are considering entrepreneurship as an alternative post-graduation route and UK HEI’s need to keep up with demand to compete in an increasingly competitive market. But as more universities create teams to offer this kind of support, it’s often held back from being truly effective based on which department/section it’s based in. Andy Mew, Head of Start-Up Support at the University of Essex, has looked at some of the advantages and disadvantages teams face and how to use these to help them in their respective institute. Read more here.
Falmouth: NEEUK Award Prize Funds enable continued entrepreneurial activity at Falmouth University
50 students attended a business startup evening recently at Falmouth University to hear about the startup support options, including startup 1-2-1s, “Be your own boss” sessions and the MSc Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management course.
The evening was part-funded by the prize fund awarded by the National Enterprise Educators UK to the MSc team as Entrepreneurship Catalysts.
The photo shows international MSc students serving the food they prepared for the event, so testing their “Hurry Curry” business concept, which received great feedback, so helping the development of their business plan.
Derby: Game-based entrepreneurial education
The University of Derby recently hosted a session featuring the latest version of The StartUp Game, created by OneTech. This educational board game offered staff and students an engaging way to understand the startup journey. Players embark on a quest to build a unicorn company, having identified a problem to solve. The challenge intensifies as other founders (players) pursue the same problem. The game creatively simulates building a team and product, capturing the market, raising investment, and equity retention. This session provided a practical insight into the competitive nature of startup development, and how early decisions can have long-term consequences.
Suffolk: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Eco-system Showcase
Following the success of the Winter Express Start-Up Bootcamp for UOS students and the local community, we ended term with a celebratory showcase event that praised and promoted the local enterprise and entrepreneurship eco-system in Suffolk. Bringing together new and established businesses from current students, alumni and local influencers, this event was a buzz of positivity, opportunity and community energy highlighting the thriving world of enterprise in Ipswich. Raising the profile of extra-curricular support for students curious about enterprise the success of this event has already lead to increased interest and participation base for the 2024 enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes. Enterprise and Entrepreneurship | University of Suffolk (uos.ac.uk)
Kyiv National Economic Uni: “Ideafest”
On December 08, 2023 student business idea competition “Ideafest” was held at the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman. The first place was awarded to “SportUp’ project, aimed at helping students to do sports online with the help of video lessons with a trainer. The second place was awarded to the project “SaveLife”, focused on providing military personnel with a device for tracking their vital medical indicators. The third place was awarded to the project “VRMandry”, aimed at developing virtual tours into the history of Ukraine and its culture with the help of VR technologies.
Nottingham : YES23 Showcase at the Royal Society
We invite enterprise educators to find out more about YES by joining us at the YES23 Showcase being held at The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AG on Wednesday 31 January 2024 from 2pm to 7pm. Your Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is an innovative global competition developed to raise awareness among master’s and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research fellows and technicians about how ideas can be commercialised. Join us to find out more about getting involved in YES24 and to meet the remarkable talent that is brimming amongst our community. Express your interest by emailing admin@yescompetitions.co.uk.