Competitions

CREATE, the University of Highlands and Islands’ (UHI) Centre for Enterprise and Innovation

The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Business Competition is a well-established and high-profile competition open to all students across 13 UHI sites. The competition reaches out through a broad regional marketing campaign to approximately 40,000 FE, HE and Postgraduate students and researchers based in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with a strong focus on supporting students both at the application, shortlisting and post-competition stage. Although open to the wider communi...

Aston University

The Change 7 Hour Challenge is a collaboration between Aston Enterprise (a department at Aston University) and the Birmingham Enterprise Community (a student/graduate-led enterprise support organisation). They invited Aston students to develop an idea that could change the world in 7 hours. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals formed the basis of the challenge. Each multidisciplinary team had to choose a goal to work towards from the 17 goals and create an idea that focuses on that goal. T...

Kingston University

Engineers in Business Fellowship has supported Kingston University’s Bright Ideas entrepreneurial competition for three years. Bright Ideas is Kingston University’s annual entrepreneurial competition, open to all students across the university. This year, engineering entries again came from both Postgraduate and Undergraduate cohorts. The competition attracted entrants from all three undergraduate programme areas: Aerospace, Mechanical, and Civil. For the first time, a substantial number ...

Swansea University

Invent for the Planet is an Intensive Design Experience which engages students at different universities around the world and tasks them with solving some of the world’s most pressing problems in just 48 hours. Led by Swansea University’s partner, Texas A&M University, students work in local teams to develop solutions to challenges such as food security, waste management, energy consumption, and flooding. Student teams develop concepts, prototypes and elevator pitches which are presented to a...

University of York

York University’s Business Innovation & Entrepreneurship course provides broad coverage of what’s involved in the exploitation of technologies through innovation and entrepreneurship. It is a practical introduction to the creation and development of enterprises that generate and sustain value from ideas, inventions and opportunities. The broad aims of the course are to (a) develop awareness of, and interests in, business innovation and entrepreneurship, (b) introduce participants to the factors ...

Imperial College Business School

Engineers in Business Fellowship has supported Imperial College Business School’s UG Entrepreneurship Online course on the BPES programme (Business for Professionals of Engineering and Science) for the first year in 19/20. Students taking part in this module were invited to participate in a pitch competition and were also selected through excellence in achievement based on their validation report coursework assignment, where students embark on experiments to test hypotheses underlying their busi...

University of Sussex

The Global Design Challenge (GDC) module is compulsory for all first-year students studying Engineering, Informatics, and Product Design at the School of Engineering and Informatics, and students from the International Study Centre. It is one of the most valuable learning experiences for these students in their entire degrees and we are looking to expand it to other degree subjects. In terms of motivating students at Sussex, the contribution of Engineers in Business was crucial. Around 400 stu...

University of Dundee

Venture is an annual business idea competition for University of Dundee students, staff and recent graduates, with eight categories. With the award of an Engineers in Business prize fund, Venture included a dedicated prize for the most innovative idea from Science and Engineering students.

University of Greenwich

The University of Greenwich runs the Enterprise Challenge, an annual competition that provides mentoring, training and funding for entrepreneurial students who want to pursue an idea. All students and recent graduates are eligible to apply. There are two streams that you can apply for – a Social Stream, if the business will have a positive environmental or social impact and a Commercial Stream, for any general business idea.

University of Warwick

The University of Warwick ran its first Engineers in Business Competition for all second-year Engineering Undergraduates who enrolled on its ‘Starting a Business' Module (ES2B6) which examines how new businesses are established. This module gives engineering students the opportunity to understand and appreciate the challenges involved in setting up their own business. The module takes a hands on approach in teaching students how to think and act like an entrepreneur, covering a variety of are...

Lancaster University

Second Year Engineering Module - ENGR205 Business Development Project: The module covers a range of material in student entrepreneurship, innovation, idea information including generation, business planning, marketing, presenting and pitching, using tools such as the Business Model Canvas, and various external and industrial speakers to supplement and reinforce the taught theory. In groups, students work on weekly tasks and feedback to the full class each week. The assessment panel (for Busin...

University of Exeter

Elevate is a ground-breaking entrepreneurial competition supporting students to develop innovative ideas that benefit the UK’s economy and society and Elevate 2020 was the university's second year of participation in the EIB competition. This year’s competition aimed to support students enrolled on Engineering degree programmes to enable them to explore business innovation beyond project based learning. The competition provided valuable exposure for students to connect with the university’s Stu...

Aberystwyth University

Engineers in Business (EIB) supported Aberystwyth University’s InvEnterPrize Student Ideas Competition for the first time. InvEnterPrize is open to all the university’s undergraduates, post-graduates and recent graduates and the competition seeks to reward the entrant with the ‘Best Business Idea’ InvEnterPrize is run in conjunction with and predominantly funded by the Alumni Office (DARO) which donates a £10,000 prize fund, which is now enhanced with the EIB funding to stimulate participat...

University of Edinburgh

Following on the success of last year’s competition, the Edinburgh Innovations student entrepreneurship team ran the 2019 Business Ideas Competition for Engineering Students and Graduates sponsored by Engineers in Business. The Business Ideas Competition for Engineering Students and Graduates is run annually by the University’s commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations, and invites students to pitch their business ideas and win up to £1,000 to launch them. There are three divisions ...

Anglia Ruskin University

The Big Pitch is a business idea competition exclusively for undergraduate and postgraduate students at Anglia Ruskin University, from any faculty or campus. Anglia Ruskin aims to find passionate entrepreneurs with exciting, imaginative business ideas and gives them the chance to pitch for prize money and support that they need to take their ideas forward. Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy provides business mentoring and support as the competition progresses.

Cardiff University

The Engineers in Business funding was incorporated into Cardiff University’s Start-up Awards, an annual ideas competition for Cardiff University students and graduates which provide prizes and support to help them develop innovative business ideas. There are two stages - in the autumn semester, students pitch for smaller amounts of funding to assist with validating their ideas. In the spring semester, the competition final gives students the opportunity to win larger sums of funding and support ...

Queen's University Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast’s Dragons’ Den, competition is one of many initiatives organised by Enterprise SU, the entrepreneurial arm of Queen’s Students’ Union which helps students develop enterprise skills and start their own businesses. Dragons' Den competitors learn a wealth of business skills including pitching, marketing, finance and legal issues.

University of Southampton

At the University of Southampton, the Student Enterprise Team (based in the Careers and Employability Service), Future Worlds (the on-campus start-up accelerator, based within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences) and the University’s Social Impact Lab have come together to offer the SEED Start-Up Funding Competition. The competition is exclusive to University of Southampton students and supports them in the creation and development of early stage businesses or social enterprises...

London South Bank University

LSBU supports student applications to The Mayor's Entrepreneurs Competition (TMEC). TMEC is a prestigious competition to demonstrate a combination of engineering and entrepreneurial excellence. Despite numerous applications, the Engineering School had not yet had an applicant get into later stages of the competition. To rectify this an embedded programme introducing enterprise to engineers has been developed, supported by the Engineers in Business Prize Fund. The goal is to support as many qu...

University of Surrey

The University of Surrey's Enterprise Project embraces the Surrey Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Business Competition. The Enterprise Project is a year-long group project carried out by the second year students from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Surrey. Students work in groups to create innovative concepts relating to the Information Communications Technology, Electronics and Computing sector that have potential for commercialisation. The pr...

University of Sheffield

Engineering You’re Hired is an intensive one-week activity that is compulsory for all 2nd years within the Faculty of Engineering. Students choose their problem and are then placed in multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams to work on a conceptual design and a plan for a project to take the design to the “proof of concept stage”. The competition gives engineers the skills, and evidence of those skills, that will make them a highly employable engineer. It gives students experience of working ...

Birmingham City University

During the academic year 2019-2020 second year, Birmingham City University’s (BCU) engineering students worked in interdisciplinary teams to develop solutions to the challenges faced by the community of Makers Valley in Johannesburg, South Africa using the Engineering for People Design Challenge from Engineers Without Borders. Normally, an exhibition is held where students present their solutions and working prototypes to fellow students, academics and industry representatives, but this wa...

Competitions

COVID-19 Update - 08 September 2020

CREATE, the University of Highlands and Islands’ (UHI) Centre for Enterprise and Innovation

Aston University

Kingston University

Swansea University

University of York

Imperial College Business School

University of Sussex

University of Dundee

University of Greenwich

University of Warwick

Lancaster University

University of Exeter

Aberystwyth University

University of Edinburgh

Anglia Ruskin University

Cardiff University

Queen's University Belfast

University of Southampton

London South Bank University

University of Surrey

University of Sheffield

Birmingham City University

Interview with Alvira Kumar on behalf of the Plantara Team - A Winner in Lancaster University's Engineers in Business Competition

Interview with Devon Lewis – the University of Southampton’s Engineers in Business Competition First Prize Winner

National Enterprise Educator Awards