Cash to fund social enterprises
Young innovators share £74k prize money
The winners of this year’s Young Innovators Challenge have each been awarded £2,000 to develop their ideas for a variety of social enterprises.
Funded by Scottish Government and part of the Scotland Can Do approach, the competition is aimed at encouraging young people in Scotland to get into innovation and entrepreneurship.
The 38 winners (click on picture to enlarge) were drawn from 267 team entries, each tasked with developing concepts to help tackle social, health, environmental and infrastructure challenges currently facing Scotland. Highlights from this years’ competition include:
· A team from the University of Strathclyde whose GPS app allows mobility impaired users to navigate more efficiently by recording disabled access routes which can be shared online for other people to use.
· A student from Queen Margaret University whose idea is to set up Scotland’s first ‘BorrowShop’ to encourage us to become more economical with our resources.
· A team from the University of Glasgow whose idea is to design a lifestyle app to aid sufferers of dementia during their daily routine.
· A student from the University of Edinburgh who has developed software to improve the efficiency of wind turbines by acting on their control system.
Each winner will use their award funding to develop their ideas over the summer. During this time they will also have access to expert advice and support through workshops, and will take part in an exclusive Young Innovators Challenge winners residential bootcamp in Dundee.
These workshops and weekends have been designed to help them progress their idea into a position where they can either pitch for additional funding, or, start trading as a business.
Winners will also be given the opportunity to return in August to pitch their ideas to judges for additional funding of up to £5,000.
Fiona Godsman, chief executive for competition organisers, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, said: “Scotland is brimming with young entrepreneurial talent and the Young Innovators Challenge has proven to be an excellent platform to channel that talent in a way that helps benefit communities, towns, cities, industries and the environment.
“We had a record number of participants this year, and each idea deserved to be recognised. We would encourage those who haven’t been successful at this stage to seek out help and persevere to move their ideas forward.”
Since launching in 2013, the annual Young Innovators Challenge has been seen as a springboard for social start-ups in Scotland to establish themselves on the Scottish business scene. Past winners include:
· Chris McCann, founder of Snap40 – a medical wrist band which monitors hospital patients’ vital signs. Since winning Young Innovators Challenge, Christopher has gone on to secure various levels of funding and his invention will be trialled in an NHS hospital later this year.
· Victoria Hamilton, founder of VH Innovation whose ‘recoil kneepads’ have received global attention as she looks to go to market with them this year.
Judges at this year’s competition included Josh Littlejohn, organiser of the Scottish Business Awards and creator of the Social Bite, Susan Aktemel, Director of Homes for Good and Graham Bell, chief executive of the Kibble Foundation.
Although each individual winner was awarded £2,000, the awards were capped at £6,000 per team (3 persons). The team of four was therefore awarded £6,000
There were 446 participants in teams of various sizes.
Full winners list
Abdallah Moh D, Olga Szewczyk, Romulo Freitas
University of Strathclyde
Ajaya Kumar Malapati
University of St Andrews
Bethany Ripley
University of Strathclyde
Claire Wright
University of Dundee
Daniel Donaldson
Edinburgh Napier University
Danielle Amma Simpson
University of the West of Scotland (UWS)
David Boyter
Queen Margaret University
Henry Tracey, Tanita Sira, Gregor Skeldon
University of Edinburgh
Ian Denev
University of Glasgow
Jeremie Warner, Stephen Spiers
University of Strathclyde
Jonathan Thomson
Glasgow School of Art
Juan Pablo Echenique
University of Edinburgh
Kirstin Lamotte
University of Strathclyde
Leon Balchin
Glasgow School of Art
Martha Beatriz Lopez Yrigoyen, Elena Lopez Bravo, Tiffany Tam
University of Edinburgh
Matthew Bracchi, James McIlroy
University of Aberdeen
Oonagh Mannix, Helen Williams
University of Edinburgh
Patrick Renner, Rogelio Arellano, Susanne Mitschke, Gabriela Matic
University of Glasgow
Rachel Thomson
University of Edinburgh
Ritti Soncco Zachmann, Barnaby Searle, Vladimir Kucera
University of Aberdeen
Ryan Johnston
University of Dundee
Sam Multrai
University of Aberdeen
Scott Kerr
University of Strathclyde
Sylvester Sweeney
University of Dundee
