£69,000 Awarded to Universities for Business Ideas Competitions

Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) inspires engineering students, graduates and postgraduates to engage with their entrepreneurial instincts.  

EIBF works with universities that run enterprise competitions, providing them with a £3,000 prize fund so that they can encourage more engineers to participate in their business competitions and to reward those who develop the most imaginative and viable solutions to real problems.

The EIB Prize Fund was successfully piloted at the University of Nottingham and then rolled out to the University of Bristol, Kingston University and City, University of London with great success. These early successes led to Lord Sainsbury’s charitable trust, The Gatsby Foundation, granting Engineers in Business Fellowship £700,000 to fund more HEI/FEI competitions over three years.

The expanded prize fund got off to a flying start in 2018 with 23 universities awarded a £3,000 prize fund – £69,000 has already been awarded and there is more to come. “The expansion from four to 24 universities integrating EIB prizes within their enterprise competitions shows the appetite for the fund and its value to the universities. Over the next two years, we want to award a further 26 universities and FE colleges with a prize fund,” said EIBF President, David Falzani MBE.

Paula Gouldthorpe, Entrepreneurship Manager at the University of Hull which recently received a prize fund said,“Our Global Challenge is a module dedicated to all our 2nd year engineering students. This year, 300 students, creating 50 interdisciplinary groups of engineers, will solve current real-world problems. The Engineers in Business competition prize crucially helps highlight the importance of enterprise, entrepreneurial thinking and business acumen of our future engineers – encouraging them to look beyond their technical capabilities. The prize fund provides students with the additional inspiration; for the University it builds upon the careers and entrepreneurship links with our Science and Engineering Faculty and I am hopeful too of some fresh, innovative solutions for social, economic and environmental change.”

Kate Beresford, Head of Membership and Operation, Enterprise Educators UK commented on the EIBF funding: “Our member universities find enterprise competitions to be a really effective way to inspire students, graduate and postgraduates to consider enterprise and entrepreneurship. But funding can be a massive challenge, so we welcome the Engineers in Business Prize Fund and look forward to seeing a wealth of innovative engineering solutions come forward.”

For details on how to apply for an Engineers in Business Prize Fund visit the How to Apply page or email EIBCompetition@eibc.org.uk.