Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Mapping – A social sciences entrepreneurial support mapping project

Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Mapping

This project

Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Mapping

A social sciences entrepreneurial support mapping project

Drawing on the wealth of entrepreneurial activities and opportunities that exist across the Aspect network, this project aimed to identify social science entrepreneurship offerings with a view to mapping relevant resources for entrepreneurs and alumni.

The Project Manager worked with the Entrepreneurship Community of Practice members to identify the range of offerings available at each university. Each university’s offering was mapped, providing a gap analysis, allowing members to look across all of the Aspect universities to consider what could be shared potentially in terms of best practice and ideas.

There are four key elements to this mapping project:

  • People – entrepreneurs & start-ups, supporters, entrepreneurial academics, industry partners, networks
  • Places – co-working spaces, offices and parks, hubs, accelerators/incubators
  • Programmes – events, workshops, networking
  • Pounds – competitions, investors, awards and grants

Looking at these areas across 11 Aspect institutions, a comparison matrix is being created to identify gaps and enable universities to see how they may supplement their offerings learning from the activities collated from elsewhere.

Each institution was then asked to put forward two case studies, identified based on their impact or role in the ecosystem, of entrepreneurs with a social science background developing a multitude of different entrepreneurial ventures.

The intention of these in combination is to enable universities to be able to better inform their entrepreneurial networks, whether in existence or being established, of the opportunities to get involved in the social sciences entrepreneurship ecosystem, with reference to a tangible record of current activities, and an understanding of where they can add more value.

From these learnings, the project will create a guide to inform universities how to implement their own ecosystem map should they want to direct student entrepreneurs (and others) to relevant information sources.

As a further resource, the project looked at the University of Oxford’s Entrepreneurs Uncovered Series and to created a guide on how universities could create their own.

Check out more about this and other Aspect funded projects here.

Website by Studio Harris Blondman


Aspect

Aspect (A Social sciences Platform for Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Transformation) is a network for organisations looking to make the most of commercial and business opportunities from social sciences research.

While the commercialisation pipeline for STEM research is well established, the benefits and profile of research commercialisation within the social sciences are less well known. Aspect seeks to redress this balance by connecting universities, businesses, academics and industry leaders to turn ideas into commercial solutions and solve pressing social challenges.

We aim to do this through a series of events and meetings to exchange of good practice; funded projects to test ideas and pilot new approaches and the development of toolkits (including case studies and resources) to share our insights and learnings with the broader community.

Aspect seeks to:

  • Raise the profile and significance of commercialising social sciences research
  • Build engagement between academics, business and industry
  • Inspire and encourage social sciences commercialisation
  • Grow capacity & expertise in social sciences research commercialisation
  • Develop, share and exchange knowledge and good practice

Aspect aims to become a self sustaining permanent network beyond its initial 3-year funding. Network membership is now open. Find out more about how your organisation can join on our Get Involved page.


Offering Offerings

University of Oxford

Get connected

Calendars of Events

Enterprising Oxford What’s On

Enterprising Oxford is a University of Oxford initiative to help connect our students, staff and alumni to the entrepreneurial people, places and programmes they need in Oxfordshire and beyond.

Enterprising Oxford connects all of the entrepreneurship initiatives and resources in Oxford in one place. Whether you are interested in developing your employability skills, or want to start or grow your business, Enterprising Oxford can help you find what you need at each stage of your journey.

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Oxford Entrepreneurs

Through tailored corporate innovation programs, we help some of the world’s leading companies build their innovation pipelines and pioneer new technologies. We also work with leading global firms to source for innovative talent from the university.

Science Innovation Union (SIU)

The Science Innovation Union is a graduate and post-graduate led not-for-profit organisation with a primary focus in translational science, and assisting in bridging the gap between academia and industry. Our translational science scaffold is supported by four arms: Events & Networking, Consulting, Education, and Editorials; an all-inclusive set of training and educational activities engaging scientists and expanding the mind-set to the interface of business, science and entrepreneurship. In combination, these aim to engage people from across a variety of different disciplines, industries and across both the private and public sector in life sciences to spark a conversation at the “pre-venture” stage.

Innovation Forum Oxford

Innovation Forum is a global network of forward-thinking scientists, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs and investors with 15 branches spread across 3 continents. As part of this international network, Innovation Forum Oxford is committed to accelerating the development of innovative technology by bringing together academics, industry experts, clinicians and policy makers. We aim to achieve this goal by:

  • Building a platform for discussions on cutting-edge advances in health and life sciences, digital health, clinical engineering and clean technology
  • Connecting innovative minds in science and healthcare with industry executives, investors and policy makers
  • Providing inspiration, knowledge, and opportunities to empower young entrepreneurs to achieve their goals and solve new challenges

Oxford Social Entrepreneurship Society

OSE is a high-intensity, milestone driven programme built to recruit, equip, and leverage Oxford-based social startups created to tackle pressing global challenges.

Ultimately, it is up to your team to build the startup. The programme is here to help structure your process, teach you key skills, connect you with other students and advisors, provide mentorship, and to inform you about relevant funding opportunities and competitions. The programme begins in November 2020 and lasts for the full academic year. The start is more intensive as we take the teams through an 8-session programme, one session every two weeks.

You will need to have at least one student or alumni from Oxford in your team to join, but we welcome and encourage diverse teams with members outside Oxford and the UK. Covid means everything happens online anyway, so it is easy to join us from abroad. The programme is fairly intense if you enter as a one-man-band (although we won’t stop you), but we can help you recruit a team for your idea.

Hertford Entrepreneurship Society

Are you…?

  • Freaking out that you have no idea what to do with your life?
  • Feeling like literally everyone around you wants to work in the city?
  • Not yet thinking about careers but love solving problems?
  • Wanting to turn your passion into your profession?

We’re a group of 5 students at Hertford College who are frustrated by what we call ‘Oxford career groupthink’ and are doing something about it. We noticed that successful entrepreneurs share many qualities and skills that allowed them to turn their passion into their profession. And we want to empower you to do the same.

Jesus Entrepreneurs Network

The Jesus Entrepreneur Network (JEN) is a fast-growing professional network committed to sharing expertise, advice, and skills with Jesus students, fellow alumni, and friends of the College. Founded in 2015, JEN began with its flagship student mentoring scheme for the annual All-Innovate competition in partnership with the Oxford Foundry. Members of the network coached the 2019 All-Innovate competition winners, beating 21 other Oxford colleges in the process. In the summer of 2020, JEN members shared advice on interviewing, CV preparation, and mentoring over three online courses for current Jesus students and young alumni.

The network has since grown to include Jesus associate alumni from Saïd Business School and we are delighted to expand our reach to include a more diverse and global alumni community. The Jesus Entrepreneur Network welcomes anyone who has an interest in entrepreneurship and student mentoring to consider joining this valuable group.

Wadham entrepreneurs

Starting your own business is exciting and daunting in equal measure. Wadham entrepreneurs discuss the challenges and opportunities, sharing their experience and advice.

Oxford Start-ups

We help you tailor the support you need to fit the specific challenges of your new venture. The Startup Incubator is free and aimed at members and ex-members of the University of Oxford wanting to start or grow entrepreneur-driven ventures that are not University spinouts.

The incubator has been in operation since 2011 and has:

  • taken in over 80 startup ventures ranging from the medical domain to social media data analysis
  • supported and worked with them on product development and initial commercial traction
  • supported incubator ventures in attracting over $70 million from a range of public and private sources

We typically support founders from the idea stage, but also take in and successfully accelerate more mature ventures. We have built our programme from the ground up for an academic environment – we realise you may not be able to work full time on your venture from day one and have set up our process and structure to accommodate this.

Oxford Garage

We are a community that provides founders with access to Oxford Garage’s network of mentors, partners, investors, and alumni. Founders will also receive US$300K+ in resource benefits.

Mentorship from Leading Disruptors

As part of the Garage, you will gain access to our pool of leading mentors. Our mentors have founded some of the world’s most disruptive startups, worked at or are currently working at some of the world’s largest technology companies, or are thought leaders in their field. Mentors are typically Director-level and above.

OESP

Social entrepreneurship across Oxfordshire is a growing force for change. People from all walks of life are looking at new ways of addressing social and environmental issues. Social entrepreneurs and innovators are setting up and running business ventures that trade for a social and/or environmental purpose. OSEP has been set up to help existing and prospective social entrepreneurs plan, develop and grow their businesses. We aim to be one of the best network of support and funding for social entrepreneurs in the UK.

ROBIN (Responsible Oxfordshire Business Involvement Network)

What is ROBIN?

ROBIN (Responsible Oxfordshire Business Involvement Network) is a network of like-minded people from organisations across all sectors that was set up in 2009. The network continues to grow strongly, and there are many impressive success stories that demonstrate how powerful collaborations and valuable links have developed between businesses and local charities.

What does ROBIN do?

Members collaborate and provide support by sharing skills and resources creatively for the benefit of the people of Oxfordshire. These can be one-off opportunities, but so often lead to the development of closer relationships and further new opportunities and associations.

How does ROBIN work?

Members from business, charities, community groups, educational institutions and public sector bodies meet each other at quarterly networking events to catch up on what’s going on and to make new connections. Requests for support and offers of help are publicised throughout the network and via a dedicated group on LinkedIn. The requests and offers are then matched, introductions are made and collaborations take place to satisfy the requirements. We are continuing to develop and strengthen our channels of communication via Linkedin, this website as well as links on and associated sites. We are also maximising exposure and accessibility via social media and networking, email and newsletters.

OxLEP Enterprise Hubs

We operate as the growth hub for Oxfordshire, simplifying the business support landscape and helping individuals and businesses to easily connect. In-light of COVID-19, we have introduced a number of new programmes and funds aimed at providing critical help to our business community.

Global Opportunities and Threats: Oxford (GOTO)

Global Opportunities and Threats: Oxford (GOTO) is an action-oriented problem-solving community geared towards addressing some of the most complex issues that face the world today. Students and alumni connect with faculty from across the University of Oxford and their research through tutorials, skills sessions and via this online platform to discuss, debate, and drive new business ideas that address global issues. One focus topic is considered each year and topics have included Demographic Change, Big Data, Water Management & Markets and The Future of Work. The topic for 2017/18 will be The Future of Healthcare.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Faculty, Students, Alumni

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Venturefest Oxford

Venturefest Oxford was set up in 1998 as an annual event that brings together innovators, investors and entrepreneurs to make connections that lead to new investments, new businesses and new ideas in the high-tech sector.

The event celebrates successes in the knowledge economy in the region and provides a focal point for the local innovation ecosystem. This model was used to set up the National Venturefest network.

Oxford Inspires

An intimate gathering of the world’s most disruptive entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors.

Skoll World Forum

LET’S COME TOGETHER TO ACCELERATE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD’S MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS

University of Oxford Entrepreneurship podcast series

A selection of podcasts from across Oxford University and the woider network, connecting listeners with insights and inspiration from leading thinkers and practitioners of our time.

Reimagine

Our world is at an inflection point. A global pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of an interconnected world. Will the virus exploit our social fault lines, or rally our collective strength?

We know that things will never be the same after Covid-19. But how do we make sure that the future is better than what we’re leaving behind?

Social entrepreneurs are in the business of building better futures. While most of us see only symptoms, they look at the whole system. And by reframing a problem – seeing things differently – we can begin to reimagine what’s possible.

Unlocking this process of discovery is what Reimagine is all about. Reimagine is a new podcast series from the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford.

University of Oxford Social Entrepreneurship & Climate Change podcast series

A selection of podcasts from the International Women’s Leadership Symposium. Celebrating the exceptional work and contributions of women’s research and entrepreneurial endeavours - on some of our most critical challenges of climate change, sustainable energy and equity. Held on the 16th of June 2010 at the Said Business School, Oxford. Organised jointly by the UK Research Centre (UKERC) and the Females in Engineering, Science and Technology (FEST) organisation.

Oxford Foundry: AI IMPACT weekend

MPP STUDENTS DESIGN AI-BASED SOLUTIONS TO HELP ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

OXFORD UNI STUDENTS WIN PRIZE FOR IDEA TO REDUCE POLLUTION FROM WORLD’S SHIPPING INDUSTRY

Are you concerned about the climate crisis? Have you ever wondered how AI can be used to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius and reduce the worst effects and risks of climate change?

Then you should definitely sign up for our third annual AI Impact Weekend delivered in collaboration with EY.

Oxford Foundry: Connect Clinics

Need advice on an entrepreneurial idea? Join our 20 minutes speed mentoring sessions. A great opportunity for you to meet with our team and experts face-to-face at the Foundry for some 1:1 advice on the next steps in taking your ideas forward.

Time and location 13.00-17.00, Oxford Foundry

MARMALADE

MARMALADE IS AN EVENT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.

Marmalade keeps on growing and evolving, with more people and organisations using it as a platform for collaboration and interesting conversations all year round.

WHO ORGANISES IT?

Marmalade is an Arts at the Old Fire Station and Oxford Hub initiative.

Arts at the Old Fire Station is a centre for creativity in Oxford:

  • producing and presenting new work across art forms

  • helping people be creative

  • supporting artists

  • including people facing tough times because of disadvantage

  • working with communities cross Oxford

You can find out more about AOFS at oldfirestation.org.uk

Oxford Hub

Oxford Hub’s aim is to bring people and organisations together to make Oxford a better place for everyone. They run programmes that build new relationships in the community and support everyone who lives there to thrive.

You can find out more information at oxfordhub.org

MARMALADE

Marmalade will be back,
4 - 8 April 2022.

Want to get in touch?
hello@marmalade.io

Oxford Foundry: Idea Exploration workshop series

Idea Exploration workshops

Who are they for?

The workshops are open to all University of Oxford students – any discipline, all levels of study.

Why should you attend?

This series is a great opportunity to develop fundamental skills in complex problem solving, creativity, critical thinking and collaborating with others, all of which have been identified by The World Economic Forum as necessary skills to equip individuals to thrive in the ‘fourth industrial revolution’.

Not only will this series help to build these skills, it will do so in a fun and engaging way whilst giving you the opportunity to meet and collaborate with students from across the whole university.

Oxford Foundry Speaker Series

Speaker series

Join us to hear from speakers and thought-leaders. Be inspired and learn top tips on starting and scaling a venture or being bring .

Pitch @ the Pub

Pitch @ the Pub is a fun and engaging way to find out about new and up-and-coming startups, spinouts and social enterprises in Oxford. The purpose is to raise awareness about local startups/ventures in the local area.

#StartedinOxford Demo Day

The #StartedinOxford Demo Day is a celebration and showcase of the Oxford-linked entrepreneurship community. This event will bring together exciting companies and ventures linked to the University of Oxford or Oxford Brookes University (students, staff or alumni) from across the globe, as well as those from across Oxfordshire.

The Intrapreneurship Series

The Intrapreneurship Series is designed for students who are looking to have an impact and lead change in an organisation, this series provides insights to be able to understand real-life challenges in complex structures and how to innovate within them. This series is an excellent opportunity for you to gain insight into the challenges being an intrapreneur presents, how to implement new ideas, work with multiple organisational levels and how to make innovation sustainable. Participants will be able to share their own professional experience as well as learn from others.

Each session will welcome an industry expert who will present not only the current state of their industry and organisation but also challenges that they have experienced in their roles. Additionally, we encourage experts to pose questions and challenges for the session that will allow participants to put forward ideas and possible solutions that address these and engage their entrepreneurial spirits. In order to create variety and demonstrate the diversity across complex organisations, we are inviting industry experts from international organisations, governments, scale-ups, not-for-profits, and corporates.

Students can attend sessions on an individual basis or participate in the whole series, with the format of each session to take place virtually in a webinar style.

Skoll Randomised Coffee Trials

How does it work?

Oxford is a magical place to meet fascinating people. Our aim is to help you make connections with other changemakers within the Oxford ecosystem.

That’s why we are launching our Randomised Coffee Trials to help you meet a potential co-founder, mentor or life-long friend.

Each month, everyone who signs up will be sent the name of another randomly-chosen changemaker. Pairs can arrange a brief informal meet-up at a time that suits both parties – be it a coffee face to face, or a Skype call, Google Hangout or phone call if that’s not doable.

We run them every month with an opportunity to meet and connect with a different person each time. There are no rules – they should be viewed as a fun opportunity to connect with peers. If scheduling means that you can’t meet that month, then it’s OK.

Sign me up!

If you’d like to be involved, please fill in this short form.

You can opt-out at any time, just email us.

Oxford Said Entrepreneurship Forum (OSEF)

The Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum (OSEF) is a one-day conference, held annually at Oxford Saïd to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

OSEF 2021 took place completely virtually in the form OSEFx under the theme of ‘Build back better’. We believe, like many, that for the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis to be durable, a return to ‘business as usual’ should be avoided. This means doing more than just getting economies quickly back on their feet. Well-designed recovery measures must catalyse the shift to more responsible business practices and also trigger behavioural changes that will increase society’s resilience to similar occurrences. We bought together prominent entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders for a meaningful exploration of how we can build a more equitable future for all.

Each year, OSEF brings together notable entrepreneurs and industry practitioners through keynote speakers and panel discussions. Keynote speakers are pioneers in their field, their entrepreneurial journeys are inspirational and their companies have had incredible impact on the world we live in. Panel discussions take a deeper dive into specific topics, allowing for more engaging conversation and discussion. Finally, a pitch competition showcases ventures from across the Oxford ecosystem.

Register your interest in OSEF 2022

Learn more

Online Courses

Oxford Foundry: Creative Live

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access All

Oxford University LinkedIn Learning

Free access to thousands of online courses

LinkedIn Learning (previously known as Lynda.com) is a huge library of online, video based, courses covering a wide range of software and IT related topics (as well as soft skills and business skills) for beginners through to experts. The library is available to use for free by all University members who have Single Sign On credentials.

Using LinkedIn Learning is easy. Click on the LinkedIn Learning button to access all the courses using your Single Sign-On credentials.

VIDEO: How to get started with LinkedIn Learning

With just a few easy steps you can also setup LinkedIn Learning on your mobile devices. In doing so you will be able to choose the right learning path for you and learn new things wherever you are!

Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford: Managing Innovative Technology

This Managing Innovative Technology course is aimed at those in translation or innovation roles in technology and research orientated organisations.

Learn how organisations most effectively find, evaluate and process innovative technologies to realise their commercial value.

Discover the systems and context behind open innovation, licensing, accessing markets and patent/ IP strategy.

This course was developed in conjunction with Oxentia Ltd, a global technology transfer and innovation management consultancy, established in 2004 as the innovation consulting division within Oxford University Innovation. Oxentia Ltd. work with clients in over 50 countries, supporting innovation management, technology commercialisation and entrepreneurship training and support.

Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford: Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs are gaining international attention motivated by the desire for change and to see the world as it can be, not as it is. Students in the course will learn how social entrepreneurs have developed creative solutions to address social problems. The intention of the course is to develop knowledge, appreciate of the role of social entrepreneurs that create social change, deepen students understanding of the world around them, and to inspire you to use your skills and knowledge to be as Gandhi said, ‘the change you wish to see in the world’.

Students in this course will gain knowledge about social entrepreneurs and how they are creating solutions to address societal problems, learn how to develop creative solutions to address social problems, and empower you to see social entrepreneurship as a force for social change. The course is designed for you if you want to gain valuable tools to prepare you to make an impact on the lives of others.

For information on how the courses work, and a link to our course demonstration site, please click here.

In-Person Courses

Scientific Entrepreneurship Course (MPLS Division)

This course is for scientists and engineers who are thinking about commercialising their ideas, introducing them to the practicalities and the mindsets that they will need to be successful in developing their venture. Led by a successful research scientist and entrepreneur with experience of executive leadership, industrial R&D, investment management and strategic consultancy, who is now the Royal Society’s Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Oxford.

Success in a start-up business is significantly enhanced with an understanding of key entrepreneurial characteristics and competencies. This weekly, term-long course provides potential science/engineering entrepreneurs with the knowledge to help succeed in an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Topics covered include:

  • how creativity, opportunity and feasibility are best evaluated;
  • business strategies for new businesses;
  • achieving success in a new business;
  • financial aspects.

At the end of the course students will have skills and confidence to evaluate starting a science-based business, in addition to becoming more enterprising in how they approach their roles should they decide to work in start-up organisations.

Newsletters

Skoll Centre newsletter

Keep up to date with the latest discoveries through the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship’s Systems Change Observatory research initiative.

Engaging in lifelong learning is important in so many ways from supporting career aspirations to personal wellbeing. We’d love to share our business insights plus information we think you’d find useful and thought provoking, such as the latest research and ideas from our renowned academics, various events you might like to attend as well as information on current and future programmes we are launching and how to apply.

We’ll always treat your personal information with the utmost care and won’t share it with third parties.

Information Sources

Enterprising Oxford: Supporting Entrepreneurial Connectivity

Enterprising Oxford is a University of Oxford initiative to help connect our students, staff and alumni to the entrepreneurial people, places and programmes they need in Oxfordshire and beyond.

Enterprising Oxford connects all of the entrepreneurship initiatives and resources in Oxford in one place. Whether you are interested in developing your employability skills, or want to start or grow your business, Enterprising Oxford can help you find what you need at each stage of your journey.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Students, staff and alumni

Oxford Hub

At Oxford Hub, we bring people and organisations together to make Oxford a better place for everyone. We run programmes that build new relationships in the community and support everyone who lives here to thrive.

Be a part of what we do.

You can explore all of our opportunities to volunteer or participate in our programmes below. Sign up to become a member of Oxford Hub and hear about our upcoming opportunities to make a difference in the Oxford community.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access All
  • Audiences Students, staff, alumni, general public and organisations

Building a Business

Building a Business covers basic business principals and introduces the key concepts of starting a business.

The Building a Business lecture series provides basic business skills to those who would like to start a business, as well as those with an existing early stage business who are seeking to develop and enhance their skills. It is not aimed at established entrepreneurs or businesses; the lecture content is aimed at people who have limited prior knowledge of business practice.

Please note that Building a Business 2017 was the last in the series and from now on the course materials will only be available online.

Startup Tips Videos

Oxford is an amazing place for testing ideas, working on new ventures, and finding the support necessary to be innovative. Check out the videos below to find startup tips from students and recent graduates to help you find your path.

Entrepreneurs Uncovered Series

Real life stories from entrepreneurs in all stages of their journey, with a link to Oxford… successes, failures and everything in between!

University of Oxford Entrepreneurship Support Listings

The University of Oxford has a great selection of organisations and student groups providing opportunities to learn and explore entrepreneurial thinking, and support entrepreneurship (to start a startup). No matter if you’re a student or staff, what your background or field of study is, age or gender, there is something here for you if you want to start a business.

Oxford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is varied and diverse, with links in the local area and across the globe, due to the amazing engagement and generosity of our students, alumni, staff and academics. Check out the links below to find out more about which organisations can help you on your path.

Said Business School: Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

The Skoll Centre is a diverse, equitable and inclusive learning community of academics, practitioners and students from around the world.

We pioneer global learning in Social Entrepreneurship, Systems Change and Knowledge Equity.

We achieve this through world-class education programmes, action-centred research and catalytic collaborations.

Through this, we are playing our part to develop the next generation of systems leaders to transform unjust systems and help address the world’s greatest environmental and social challenges.

Said Business School: Entrepreneurship Centre

The Entrepreneurship Centre supports Saïd Business School’s community in pursuing their entrepreneurial ambitions.

We play a significant role in supporting student futures at Oxford Saïd, working with other departments within the School to underpin the curricular and co-curricular, personal and entrepreneurial goals of our students.

How do we do this? Through experiential learning, access to local and global networks, and thought leadership. The programming of the Centre is designed to support and enhance the journey of students throughout their time at Oxford Saïd.

The Oxford Foundry

The Oxford Foundry gives all students and alumni at the University of Oxford, and wider communities, the entrepreneurial and technology skills they need to succeed in their chosen career, and to build and lead purposeful, sustainable ventures that benefit people and the planet.

The Oxford Foundry was established in 2017 by the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, for the benefit of all students and alumni of the University of Oxford.

Our mission is to build a new generation of ventures that better society, and to nurture more ethical leaders who put people and planet first.

Oxford University Careers Service: Social Enterprise

Starting your own business, social enterprise or charity is a career option open to all academic backgrounds. Don’t be put off if you think you don’t have all the skills (e.g. financial accounting, building a website etc). There’s lots of help available with any and all aspects of starting an organisation, both while you’re here at Oxford, and after you complete your course. Another way to access those skills is to join up with others and “co-found” your new business, social enterprise, or charity.

Big shout-out here for Enterprising Oxford website – THE go-to website to start your investigation of this exciting world.

Entrepreneurship might suit you if you like being in charge, influencing other people, taking risks, making things happen and are adventurous, assertive, ambitious, and motivated.

Find support

Programmes

Oxford Hubs Impact Labs

Impact measurement is essential for charities to be able to prove the value of their work, but also to improve the services they deliver and ensure they achieve the best possible outcomes. However, charities often lack the capacity to devote time to this area of work.

Our Impact Labs programme trains teams of volunteers in key impact measurement skills so that they can support local organisations to achieve their goals through an 8-week placement programme.

StEP Student Entrepreneur Programme

The StEP scheme is a student entrepreneur program which will engage groups of students to create new spinouts.

The Oxford Foundry, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), Oxford University Innovation (OUI) and the Entrepreneurship Centre run a four week programme for budding entrepreneurs who want to develop their skills with real technologies and IP, benefiting from support from professionals in the innovation sector. Only current Oxford University student members (fully matriculated students) are eligible to join the program.

OUI will make University IP available to student groups for the purpose of putting together investable business cases. The groups will receive: a stipend (£1,500 for applicants who can commit to the full-time programme), a place to work, mentoring from OUI staff and free access to an intensive training programme.

The StEP scheme will be based at The Foundry, where all groups will have the chance to pitch for £25,000. This will enable the successful teams to put more time into their business idea, bring in additional expertise and work with OSI to put a more substantial first round investment together to start their new spinout.

Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Enterprise Programme

Enterprise is applying creative ideas and innovations to practical situations.

Improving your enterprise skills and your ability to identify and develop opportunities (as well as enhancing the impact of your work) will benefit you whether you pursue a career in academia or decide to move into business or a corporation.

MPLS Enterprise offers you ways to develop your enterprise skills by combining a progressive series of half day or 2-4 day workshops with a variety of seminars, networking events and activities supporting you to participate in national and international bootcamps and competitions.

The three pillars of Enterprise are Passion, Enthusiasm and Confidence, all to be widely found in the research community, so you have a great start!

Oxford Hub Young Trustees

We are inspiring and training the next generation of trustees in the charity sector. Our Hub Trustees Programme (formerly the Young Trustees Programme) places participants on local boards, and provides them with training for their trustee role.

The aim of the programme is to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to become a trustee and help lead a local charity to tackle social and environmental issues.

Oxford University Careers Service: General

Gain insights into careers in a variety of sectors, read tips on how to build applications that stand out, find out how to improve employability skills, and more, from careers advisers, top recruiters and Oxford alumni.

The Sectors and Occupations section on our website provides useful guides to a wide variety of industries and professions. Each careers briefing includes an overview of the sector, the skills and experience you may need, the process of getting a job in that particular field, and suggests a variety of resources.

Oxford University Careers Service: Student Consultancy

An innovative and unique programme, The Student Consultancy equips students with key and demonstrable consulting and teamwork skills to help local businesses, charities and community organisations.

The Student Consultancy (TSC) is only open to participants who have completed The Oxford Strategy Challenge (TOSCA). It is an experiential learning programme providing hands-on consultancy and strategy experience with client organisations. TSC will offer you progression from your The Oxford Strategy Challenge experience.

Over a period of 4-8 weeks you’ll work in a team on a project that’s important to the client - it might be understanding what customers value, a fundraising strategy for a charity, or ideas on how to promote their products and services to more people.

Oxford University Careers Service: UK Visa Application programme

The rules about working in the UK are complex and change frequently. This is a brief guide to some of the options.

For full and up-to-date information on UK Visas, follow the external web-links at the end of the page.

Working in the UK while a student:

Depending on your status, it is possible to work in the UK whilst you are studying, and there are routes to work in the UK upon completion of your Oxford degree.

Oxford University Careers Service: micro-internship Office

Micro-Internships are 2-5-day voluntary learning and development opportunities exclusively on offer to Oxford University students. Each placement gives you the opportunity to observe and assist with a notable project. The aim is to develop your employability skills, add to your CV, and offer you the opportunity to make new professional contacts.

The Liber Project

The Entrepreneurship Centre’s Liber Project engages UK start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs for a tailored business development programme. The initiative brings founders and C-level executives together with Oxford Saïd Business School MBA, Executive MBA students, and alumni for a highly collaborative project. Students gain practical experience whilst providing organisational and operational support to the enrolled businesses.

All participants of the Liber Project will gain tailored content in entrepreneurship and innovation topics, whilst building a community of like-minded founders, students, and experts.

Venture Lab

These individual workshops are designed for Saïd Business School students that have a business idea that they would like to carry out some initial testing on and see whether the idea can be validated. For MBA students in particular, this is an opportunity to work on an idea prior to the Entrepreneurship Project. We will not be covering Entrepreneurship Project course material, but the programme will take preparatory steps to maximise the experience of the Entrepreneurship Project. For students that do not take the Entrepreneurship Project this is a great chance to explore an idea further and develop a tool kit that you can use on future ideas.

Leading for Impact

Leading for Impact takes a small cohort of change leaders through a personal development journey. This programme is not just for social entrepreneurs it is ideally suited if you aim to solve social and environmental problems in your current or future career, and wish to develop your skills as an effective leader together with a community of peers doing the same.

The Impact Lab Programme

Our goal is to strengthen the Oxford MBA programming for students who are committed to impactful careers and leading systemic change.

Impact Lab is a co-curricular pathway of carefully curated programmes and offerings that complement the Oxford MBA programme for students who are committed to or already have an impact-driven career.

Impact Lab curates a customised set of interwoven activities, including masterclasses, workshops, peer learning activities, and personal development retreats. Much of the content developed and designed for Impact lab is student driven and will include co-created cross-discipline content from both students and thought leaders alike.

The Ideation Lab

A series of facilitated workshops designed to engage you in the process of ideation.

It is for those that do not yet have a business idea but would like to develop skills and knowledge to ideate successfully, to further develop an entrepreneurial mindset. This is particularly relevant for MBA candidates when preparing for the Entrepreneurship Project later in the academic year.

You will develop an understanding of techniques and processes to build skills in self-perception, design thinking and idea generation that are effective not only if you are looking to start your own businesses but also to be innovative in complex organisations.

Creative Destruction Lab Student Programme

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a non-profit organisation that delivers an objectives-based programme for massively scalable, seed-stage, science and technology based companies.

Its programme pairs founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors to set focused, measurable objectives with the goal of maximising equity value creation. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the programme has now expanded with locations in nine business schools around the world.

Launched in 2019 at Saïd Business School, Creative Destruction Lab Oxford is the first CDL site in Europe and offers four streams:

Oxford Healthtech Labs

Training the next generation of global digital (social) innovators

Mission

Oxford Healthtech Labs teaches the Need-Led Innovation Process, a systematic and proven approach to ‘needs’ finding, designed to de-risk the invention of suitable innovative technologies that take into account the important stakeholders of current healthcare and industry settings. Oxford Healthtech Labs also has a particular focus on social entrepreneurship during the fellowship programme.

Programmes

Oxford Healthtech Labs offers two programmes, the Global Insight Fellowships (GIF) programme and the Reuben College (1KN) programme.

Oxford Biodesign

Oxford Healthtech Labs builds on years of experience running need-driven innovation training programmes at the University of Oxford. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A range of collaborators have been part of these programmes including Sorbonne University, Sanofi Espoir Foundation, the National Productivity Investment Fund, of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

L.E.V8 Women Programme

The 7-day L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator programme will take you through a combination of intensive, immersive learning workshops and 1:1 mentoring from our incredible L.E.V8 Women Ambassadors. You will come away from the experience with the tools you need to take your venture forward with confidence and purpose. We achieve this by focusing on both personal development and business development.

Personal development: this element of the programme will focus on developing YOU as an individual to help you be the most successful entrepreneurial leader you can be. Specifically, we will focus on helping you increase your self-belief, resilience, ability to negotiate well, and your appetite for risk, and develop your skills in public speaking.

Business Development: alongside the personal development, the programme will take you through a collection of intensive, practical business development workshops so that you can walk away from the programme with an actionable business plan.

ZINC Venture-Builder Programme

The Zinc Venture Builder programme is a full time, 12 month programme that exists to build brand new companies that tackle the biggest social challenges in the developed world. The programme is designed to be Mission-led for pre-team & pre-idea individuals which means:

  • Mission-led: Each of our Venture Builder programmes have a single Mission that tackles a big societal problem.

  • Pre-team: You will join the programme as an individual, form bonds with other members of our supportive cohort and through this, create teams during the first stage of the programme.

  • Pre-idea: We expect you to come with a passion for the mission but you don’t need to have a strong solidified idea for a solution or business.

With the help of Zinc, our unique mix of Founders create scalable products and services that target millions of customers across the globe, based on the best social science research, exponential technologies and creative design.

Incubators & Accelerators

Aspect Accelerator

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Students and alumni

ZINC Academy

Zinc exists to build and scale a brand-new way to solve the most important societal problems faced by the developed world.

Our approach empowers the most talented and motivated people in the world to redirect their careers and have a large-scale social impact as entrepreneurs, researchers and intrapreneurs.

We focus on specific ‘missions’, which we believe unite, mobilise and organise the best talent, knowledge and capital that are needed to break through at scale. Within each of our missions, we run Venture Builder and Academy programmes that help individuals to have impact.

We have 3 criteria for choosing a Zinc mission:
1. It must tackle one of the great unmet needs in the developed world;
2. The target addressable market must exceed 100m people in the developed world alone;
3. There must be lots of unexploited opportunities to disrupt, extend and improve existing services through new technologies and insights from research.

Since we launched in 2017, we have been developing a unique ecosystem of diverse talent across many sectors, disciplines and countries – mobilising people around a common mission and building scalable solutions to social problems.

Each of our programmes provide unique opportunities for R&D. We are committed to building a new commercial innovation system for the social sciences, to increase the impact of existing research and to generate new R&D opportunities through our ventures. Zinc’s main financial backer is the London School of Economics. Zinc is also a member of the ASPECT consortium which is focused on accelerating the impact of social science.

OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator Programme

The 7-day L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator programme will take you through a combination of intensive, immersive learning workshops and 1:1 mentoring from our incredible L.E.V8 Women Ambassadors. You will come away from the experience with the tools you need to take your venture forward with confidence and purpose. We achieve this by focusing on both personal development and business development.

Personal development: this element of the programme will focus on developing YOU as an individual to help you be the most successful entrepreneurial leader you can be. Specifically, we will focus on helping you increase your self-belief, resilience, ability to negotiate well, and your appetite for risk, and develop your skills in public speaking.

Business Development: alongside the personal development, the programme will take you through a collection of intensive, practical business development workshops so that you can walk away from the programme with an actionable business plan.

Accelerator Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)

CDL-Oxford is located in Oxford, UK at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. The first CDL site in Europe, CDL-Oxford maximizes the probability of success for science and technology-based startups from across the globe. Housed at one of the leading universities in the world, CDL-Oxford also leverages its close proximity to London, a global epicenter of innovation.

OUI Startup Incubator & Accelerator

Startup Incubator

We’re here to support entrepreneurs!

We help you tailor the support you need to fit the specific challenges of your new venture. The Startup Incubator is free and aimed at members and ex-members of the University of Oxford wanting to start or grow entrepreneur-driven ventures that are not University spinouts.*

The incubator has been in operation since 2011 and has:

  • taken in over 80 startup ventures ranging from the medical domain to social media data analysis
  • supported and worked with them on product development and initial commercial traction
  • supported incubator ventures in attracting over $70 million from a range of public and private sources

We typically support founders from the idea stage, but also take in and successfully accelerate more mature ventures. We have built our programme from the ground up for an academic environment – we realise you may not be able to work full time on your venture from day one and have set up our process and structure to accommodate this.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Students and alumni

OX1 Incubator

OX1 is the only entity in European universities that rewards £15,000+ equity-free grant annually to idea-stage startups

OX1 understands and caters for the needs of student entrepreneurs far better than current university or college-led support systems. We have created an incubator programme which is effectively structured to support the early stages of founding a start-up.

We do not take equity or IP, and provide end-to-end support throughout the process of start-up foundation. In addition to the incubator programme, we run social events and have established a strong alumni network of student entrepreneurs and mentors.

COVID-19 Support

OXFO Covid-19 Action Plan

The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a fierce light onto the areas of our society that urgently need fixing. It has highlighted the inequalities, the divisions and the scarcities. Now more than ever, it has shown us that there is a huge need for us to be connected and supported by ties of community, empathy and compassion and to better plan for the challenges ahead.

The Oxford Foundry COVID-19 Action Plan focuses on:
1. Rapidly scaling ventures in our portfolio who are responding to COVID-19
2. Rapidly building, scaling and implementing new solutions to challenges that will arise as a result of the pandemic so we can build resilience for the future (The OXFO COVID-19 Rapid Solutions Builder).

The Action Plan covers four critical impact streams; Healthcare, Education, Inclusive Social Engagement & Mobility, and Operations, Logistics and Supply Chains.

We have convened a global network of judges, experts and mentors, made up of more than 60 entrepreneurs, leading academics, policy-makers, investors and private and public sector organisations including Foundry advisors Mohamed Amersi, Founder of the Amersi Foundation, Alexsis de Raadt St. James, Managing Partner, Merian Ventures, Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Reid Hoffman CBE, Honorary advisor, Arlan Hamilton, Founder of Backstage Capital, as well as leaders such as the former CEO of Burberry and SVP Retail at Apple, Angela Ahrendts DBE, and Arunma Oteh, Former Vice President and Treasurer at the World Bank.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

The BioEscalator

Biotech incubator in the heart of Oxford’s medical research district, providing lab space and entrepreneurial support for high growth startups.

Oxford’s Old Road Campus is home to many of the University’s world-class institutes and departments, with 8500 staff and students tackling the full range of medical health challenges across the world. The BioEscalator builds on this success by nurturing early-stage biotech companies through to sustainability, by facilitating collaboration with NHS and academics, to build a community of entrepreneurial medical scientists and innovators.

Begbroke Science Park

Begbroke today is a cross-departmental research facility and science park with 12 000 m² office/laboratory space for 20 research groups and 30 high-tech science-based businesses and spin-outs; a conference venue and business training centre, a technical services provider, an educational establishment and a key employer in the Cherwell district.

It embodies the University’s commitment to promoting Oxfordshire as a hub for knowledge-intensive activities. Significant improvements were made to the infrastructure in 2012, a new access road from the A44 paving the way for future development. The building of the Begbroke Innovation Accelerator, adding 5400m², was announced as part of Oxford City Deal by Chancellor George Osborne in early 2014.

ESA Business Incubation Centres

ESA Business Incubation Centre United Kingdom

Utilising space technology can offer ambitious entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage within their sector. The ESA Business Incubation Centre United Kingdom (ESA BIC UK) provides the support and funding that start-up companies need to turn their ideas into profitable products and services using space technology, or to develop technologies for use in space.

As part of our business incubation offering, STFC manages the ESA BIC UK across its sites on behalf of ESA, offering successful applicants fully equipped office space, as well as access to all the benefits of being part of our flourishing and unique network of science and innovation campuses. Businesses work alongside, and in collaboration with, other businesses, STFC scientists and engineers, accessing a whole wealth of expertise.

The Oxford Foundry

Located on Hythe Bridge Street, in a building that was once the Oxford Ice Factory, the building is a large, easily accessible, with facilities for co-working, workshops, events, and more.

Oxford University Innovation Startup Incubator workspace

We provide and maintain on-site working space for all of our start-up ventures.

Our On-site Facilities

  • Shared workspace
    • Library of latest business and technology books
    • Mailbox for each incubatee
    • Printer/copier/fax
    • Adjacent kitchen, coffee machine
  • Access to serviced meeting rooms (during office hours)
  • Contacts at other universities in the UK and across Europe that can provide temporary meeting rooms or ‘drop-in’ facilities during major events

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

The All-Innovate Idea Competition

All-Innovate is Oxford University’s inter-college idea competition for the WHOLE University

All-Innovate is Oxford’s inter-college competition run by the Oxford Foundry in partnership with Oxford colleges. Students (undergraduate, postgraduate and DPhil) pitch entrepreneurial ideas for a chance to win a top prize of £10,000 prize money, and two runner-up prizes of £5,000 each.

For 2021, All-Innovate will be moving online and running across Hilary AND Trinity term. We will be announcing two rounds of winners during the academic year, with £20,000 being awarded in both Hilary and Trinity term. The top prize will be awarded to the best overall idea with runner up prizes being awarded to best undergraduate and best postgraduate ideas. In 2021 All-Innovate is delivered in collaboration with EY.

Idea Idol

At the start of each year, we host Idea Idol: a pitch competition for Oxford University student startups, held on the 24th November in Oxford.

Out of all applicants, 10 semi-finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects to judges composed of venture capitalists and founders who can help develop your business idea. The finalist will have the chance to participate in the Varsity Pitch Competition against Cambridge University during the 2019 Oxford Inspires Conference in Trinity Term. Past prizes have included VC mentorship packages and cash prizes. Idea Idol is more than a competition. It is an opportunity to build confidence, connect with industry players, and to be empowered. If you have a business idea or a start-up, apply by uploading your executive summary using the form below by 11th November. Good luck!

Skoll Venture Awards

We are no longer running the Skoll Venture Awards.

The Skoll Venture Award was an annual prize for early-stage social ventures founded by University of Oxford students, alumni or staff. The Award aimed to help high-potential social ventures overcome the pioneer gap, demonstrate traction, and access mainstream impact investment.

Since 2012, we invested £250,000 in 15 ventures working across accessibility technology, healthcare, mental health, agribusiness, energy, education technology, water and sanitation, Internet of Things, and machine learning. They have gone on to raise USD$17.6m and have reached a quarter of a million direct beneficiaries.

We are deeply grateful to our partners at the Skoll Foundation and our colleagues at Saïd Business School for their immense support and guidance whilst running the award.

Humanities Innovation Challenge LSE G Competition

Oxford University Innovation is delighted to announce the launch of the Humanities Innovation Challenge 2020. The competition, now in its fourth year, has been created and coordinated together with The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), which seeks to stimulate and support research activity that transcends disciplinary and institutional boundaries. TORCH is a fantastic advocate of innovation and creativity in the Humanities and its networks.

Oxford University Innovation and TORCH are keen to encourage researchers, students and staff from Humanities departments to develop entrepreneurial ideas which may enrich their own work, communicate to a wider audience and develop new perspectives in the Humanities. We invite you to apply to the competition with your innovative ideas, and welcome groups and individuals alike.

Finalists will get a chance to pitch their ideas to experts from entrepreneurial, social change and commercial backgrounds, and will receive valuable feedback and guidance from experts in business to take their ideas to the next stage.

IT Innovation Challenges

New and emerging technologies in the digital world provide Oxford University with unprecedented opportunities to innovate by sharing resources and ideas, working together and coming up with new concepts. Across the University, we are finding new ways to use existing tools and identifying improvements to processes and services, as well as inventing new tools.

We administer funding for projects and also run webinars and other events as part of encouraging participation in IT innovation at Oxford.

Digital innovation projects

We administer the University’s IT Innovation Seed Fund which is a limited pocket of funding to support small start-up digital projects that will bring a benefit to the University.

Map the System

Are you ready to change the world?

Tackling global challenges starts with understanding a problem and its wider context. Join the competition that asks you to explore, probe and research the issues that matter to you, and share your findings with the world.

Map the System is a global competition that challenges you to think differently about social and environmental change.

Imagine IF!

Imagine if… is a global campaign and provocation to continue the work of Sir Ken Robinson, reimagining the parts of life we take for granted and that no longer serve us.

Our mission is to help individuals and organisations understand and harness their innate powers of imagination, creativity, and collaboration, to recreate the worlds that we live in.

Our purpose is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to imagine, reimagine, create and recreate.

Investment, Grants & Funding

The Skoll Scholarship

The Skoll Scholarship provides full funding plus a living stipend to complete an MBA at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School for social entrepreneurs worldwide.

The Oxford Seed Fund

The Fund provides start-ups and entrepreneurs with access to capital, diverse investors, and a supportive community in which to develop and scale.

We invest up to £50,000 in the top Oxford-affiliated startups and provide them with the network and support they need to scale. Our current team is made up of 11 MBA candidates whose experience ranges in venture capital, investment strategy, management consultancy, financial services and entrepreneurship.

Supported by the Entrepreneurship Centre, we source and evaluate up to 200 potential deals per year, conduct due diligence, and ultimately invest in up to two startups per year.

Oxford Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) Escalate Grant

We have grant funding available for Oxfordshire SMEs via our eScalate programme - specifically targeting scale-ups and Enterprises for social good. Our grants fund activities and projects will ultimately lead to business growth and job creation in Oxfordshire.

Social Enterprise Awards

The UK Social Enterprise Awards recognise businesses that give back, enrich communities and make a contribution to society, as well as those who lead them – the social entrepreneurs who use their business acumen to make a real difference, tackling social and environmental problems both in Britain and abroad. The Awards, hosted by Social Enterprise UK recognise the achievements of social enterprises and supporters in 14 different categories, including Social Enterprise of the Year, Women’s Champion, ‘Buy Social’ Market builder and the One to Watch.

The event itself, held in November each year, is the biggest celebration of social enterprise in the sector, a truly inspiring and entertaining evening. The Awards grow in size and reputation each year and the shortlisted organisations are an insight into the amazing work being done in the UK social enterprise sector.

Social Enterprise Awards

The UK Social Enterprise Awards recognise businesses that give back, enrich communities and make a contribution to society, as well as those who lead them – the social entrepreneurs who use their business acumen to make a real difference, tackling social and environmental problems both in Britain and abroad. The Awards, hosted by Social Enterprise UK recognise the achievements of social enterprises and supporters in 14 different categories, including Social Enterprise of the Year, Women’s Champion, ‘Buy Social’ Market builder and the One to Watch.

The event itself, held in November each year, is the biggest celebration of social enterprise in the sector, a truly inspiring and entertaining evening. The Awards grow in size and reputation each year and the shortlisted organisations are an insight into the amazing work being done in the UK social enterprise sector.

London School of Economics & Political Sciences (LSE)

Get connected

Calendars of Events

LSE Generate Events

We love nothing better than seeing our students and alumni thrive as socially-driven innovators.

All events focus on helping you build your business and change the world.

To support you on your journey, we run various events and training courses throughout the year and provide digital resources that you can access at any time.

Our wide range of events and digital skills courses are open to all LSE students and alumni. Each one will be announced through our social media accounts and can be booked via our Eventbrite.

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

LSE Student Union Entrepreneurs Society

LSESU Entrepreneurs is the most active society on campus. We pride ourselves by being at the forefront of entrepreneurship in LSE. The society was founded in 2004 and has since evolved into one of the most successful societies at the LSE, winning the Students’ Union’s Gold Award and multiple Outstanding Society Member Awards across the years. Weekly activities, 10,000+ social media followers as well as a membership base of undergraduates, postgraduates and alumni make us an integral part of LSE’s daily campus life.

If you are interested in Entrepreneurship, Startups, VCs, or even big Tech firms, join our society.

You will surely find interest in one of our ventures.

With our ventures, we are the premier platform for entrepreneurship.

Our Ventures

1. Entrepreneur Talks

Entrepreneur Talks is a weekly speaker series that brings successful entrepreneurs and executives to LSE for inspiring input and stimulating debates. Previous guests include Chris Sacca(Billionaire Tech Investor), Anne Boden (Founder of Starling Bank), Alexandre de Rothschild (CEO of Rothschild Co.) amongst others.

2. Founders Club

The aim of the Founders’ Club is to create a pool of resources for LSE Founders. Our mission is to help founders learn and meet, and help them help themselves by connecting them together. Since its inception, we have gathered founders from LSE and provided them with bi-weekly small group sessions with seasoned advisors from VCs and established startups.

These sessions have been hugely popular and rewarding for our members and are usually complemented with Pizzas and beers.

3. The TalkTank (Podcast)

’the talktank’ is LSE Entrepreneur Society’s brand spanking new podcast, founded in 2019. Every week we aim to deliver the sharpest minds we can get a hold off, operating in a range of different industries from AI to Fintech to Fashion to Social Innovation, … the list goes on. Our previous guests include Lord John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, and Jack Waley-Cohen, Co-founder of what3words.

4. Competitions

Competitions is our latest venture. We hope to bring together entrepreneurially minds to solve complex challenges through a competition while winning attractive prices.

5. London Startup Fair

Hosted in collaboration with UCLe and Imperial Entrepreneurs, the annual Start-up Fair brings together London’s finest young businesses with the brightest students looking to enter the entrepreneurship space.

6. Artificial Intelligence in Business and Ethics

Artificial Intelligence in Business & Ethics (AIBE) is the world’s largest non-profit AI summit. Our mission is to support the accessibility and democratisation of artificial intelligence by exploring its innovation, technology, and philosophy.

Checkout https://aibesummit.com/ for more details.

7. Future Frontier Conference

We have hosted over 50 world business leaders, founders and CEO’s to inspire, lead workshops and directly network with over 450 entrepreneurial students each year. In 2018, we joined up with Imperial Entrepreneurs to look into the future.

8. Kickstart

KICKSTART empowers the most ambitious students to build user obsessed companies by bringing together students across the UK to build strong co-founding teams.

https://www.kickstartglobal.com/

LSE Student Union Society

Societies are the heart and soul of student life at LSE, and becoming a member is the best way to get more out of your time at university. We have more than 200 societies at LSESU, with thousands of students being members.

Castore Consulting Society

Castore Consulting is a strategy advisory that delivers disruptive solutions for startups.

We support young ventures by offering a range of services to create sustainable growth and success. In line with our vision, we are an official partner of LSE Generate — the home for entrepreneurship at LSE.

Startup businesses often have limited time and resources to study the vast amounts of insights that could be put into practice. We aim to help these young ventures to thrive by combining extensive backgrounds of knowledge covering every aspect of strategy, management and entrepreneurship.

Our imperative is to provide holistic, profound and critical advice that points the way to a prosperous future. We seek to challenge the status quo and to come up with creative, unconventional and unexpected angles to tackle a magnitude of strategic challenges.

If you are looking to delve into the craft of strategy consulting while gaining thorough insights into the entrepreneurial process and the front-lines of corporate innovation—we are the right place for you!

By working at Castore Consulting, you will gain invaluable experience and network that will boost both your professional career and personal development.

Enactus Society at LSE

What is Enactus?

Enactus aims to support young people in the UK to engage in youth social action and youth social enterprise. We believe that investing in students who take ENtrepreneurial ACTion for others creates a better world for US all. Globally, our community of 72,000 members operate in 36 different countries and dedicate 7,300 hours annually.

What do we do?

Enactus is different from other societies that deal with social problems in that we use an entrepreneurial approach to create real, long-lasting social impact. Last year, our 3 social enterprises under our arm successfully impacted over 25 beneficiaries. Some of our beneficiaries who participated in our workshops have then used the skills they learnt to start their own businesses.

Besides empowering individuals, we also have pro bono consulting opportunities.. We will provide a training session before you begin your consulting projects, to be delivered by our esteemed business advisors from Accenture, EY and more.

However, the crux of Enactus is our social projects. Our team has dedicated hours to building a business model for each of our social projects, from the ideation process to the needs assessment stage and finally the impact phase. We aim to develop financially sustainable projects and we want you to be a part of it. Each and every interaction you get with your clients and the relationships you build will all form a part of your rewarding experience with Enactus.

LSE Student Union Fintech Society

The LSE SU Fintech Society aims to spark interest in the financial technologies industry through a selection of panel discussions, workshops, mentorship programs and much more. Since November 2017, we have connected our members with professionals from all corners of the industry to help prepare them for a future where the usefulness of financial technology cannot be ignored.

At the end of every year we have the Fintech summit, the full day event is a unique opportunity to learn about startups and ideas, and network with top speakers from around the world, including prominent FinTech start-up founders, leading members of the banking sphere, venture capitalists, and figures from the world of financial technology.

LSE Student Union Machine Learning Society

Whether you’re already a budding pythoneer / pythonista, have never written a line of code in your life, or just want to find out what the hype’s all about, DS@LSE is the place for you!

We hold regular talks and networking events with our partners, letting our members engage with industry practitioners and experts in the field. This year, we’re excited to work together with London Stock Exchange Group, Jane Street, KPMG, IBM, FNA and TrueCue as partners. We’ll also be hosting speakers from a range of industries, including financial services, consulting, tech and non-profits.

If you’re interested in machine learning but aren’t sure where to start, our education team holds fortnightly workshops teaching coding and machine learning techniques. For those who’ve already got some experience, you can join one of our Projects team’s projects, where you’ll work on a data science problem with a team, and potentially our industry partners.

LSE Social Impact Consulting Society

Welcome to LSESU Social Impact Advisory. We focus on advising local and international charities on how to improve their social impact. Through applying their skills to the real world, our student advisors create powerful recommendations for leading charities and help them to run better.

This year’s projects include topics such as recruiting processes, labour-market analysis, impact measuring and many more. In the end, everybody is a winner: the students who can practice their business skills, the charities who grow their impact, and society that benefits from well-run social organisations.

Transform your development and society. What are you waiting for?

LSE student-run Social Innovation Society

Welcome to the Social Innovation Society!

Our goal is to provide inspiration and knowledge about social innovation.

Through the engagement with leading practitioners of the sector, we run workshops, fireside chats, and interactive events, that bring light to the emerging opportunities in the social innovation sector.

In addition to creating a space for knowledge to be shared, we aim to help the LSE community create networks with social entrepreneurs and changemakers in the UK and beyond.

This is the place for the dreamers, the challengers, the entrepreneurs, the pioneers. We believe in driving change and challenging the status quo.

Together we can achieve more, give more, help more, and do more.

Our purpose is the drive, our impact is the goal. Join us!

LSE Students’ Union Venture Capital Society

The LSE Venture Capital Society is the only society at the LSE and in London which focuses solely on Venture Capital; providing funding to start-up companies in exchange for equity, in order to develop the start-up and make it a worldwide success!

LSE Students’ Union Technology Society

The Tech Society is all about two things: innovation and community. We want to be your home at LSE.

Join for a year full of: incredible events with world class speakers from the 4 Big Tech firms, leading finance and law firms, and industry disrupting startups; workshops to develop members’ skills and employability; access to technical and non-technical career opportunities in Tech; weekly socials and exclusive trips to tech hubs.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Web Summit

LET’S COME TOGETHER TO ACCELERATE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD’S MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS

In the spirit of collective action, we’re convening our growing network to collaborate on social and environmental change from wherever we sit.

With the theme “Closing the Distance,” the 2021 Forum explored ways to bridge the divides between the world’s toughest challenges and the innovative solutions that aim to build a better future for all—with time to become closer with each other along the way.

The 2021 Forum was designed for learning, connection, and taking action for anyone dedicated to social progress.

Tech Crunch

TechCrunch - Reporting on the business of technology, startups, venture capital funding, and Silicon Valley.

Learn more

Online Courses

LSE Generate Podcasts and Moocs

In addition to attending our talks and workshops, we also invite you to listen to our podcasts. This series covers basic study skills - from reading, making notes, and essay writing, to dissertation research and exam revision. Each episode is accompanied by a summary of key points, further resources, some tasks to get hands-on practice, and a transcript of the podcast.

In-Person Courses

LSE Masters in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This unique programme brings expertise from the latest insights in social innovation research with LSE’s tradition for academic excellence, alongside practical learnings from our network of socially-focused organisations worldwide, into the classroom.

You will learn to think beyond current trends and fashions in the young and rapidly-developing field of social innovation, and develop critical academic views informed by cutting-edge research in management, psychology, sociology, economics and anthropology.

Based on this, you will learn how to design, launch and scale-up successful entrepreneurial ventures with social goals. Core courses will develop your managerial skills, and grow your talent as a successful leader of teams and organisations. Real consulting and social innovation design projects will develop your professional experience and entrepreneurial skills, and give an opportunity to start your own social enterprise during your year at LSE.

The Marshall Institute

The Marshall Institute works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit. By private action we mean the activities of philanthropic foundations, social entrepreneurs, charities, NGOs and individual citizens, donating their time, money, ideas, knowledge and skills to serve the public good. By public benefit we mean activities that serve an explicitly social goal. Very often these interventions involve significant risk. Almost always they involve outcomes that are hard to measure. They are always improved by understanding.

Newsletters

Information Sources

LSE Generate

LSE Generate supports students and alumni to build a socially responsible business, in the UK and beyond. Our year-round programme is packed with funding competitions, events and networking opportunities. We support LSE innovators at each stage of your entrepreneurial journey and provide the infrastructure to build, develop and scale your ideas.

LSE Alumni

The LSE alumni community is a global network of 155,000 change makers, leaders and influencers: you have a profound impact on the societies and sectors in which you live and work.

We are committed to engaging you in your lifelong relationship with the School, and to providing you with access to the network, the School’s intellectual capital, volunteering opportunities and the resources you need to enhance your lives and careers beyond Houghton Street.

LSE Generate Induction

Welcome to LSE and welcome to Generate, LSE’s home for entrepreneurship. You’ll likely be contending with an inbox full of messages from departments, societies, local restaurants, your mum etc right now – it’s a busy old time of year on campus!

Whether you’re just dabbling with the idea of creating a start-up at some point or looking to scale your already launched business, you’ll hopefully find the support you need with us.

LSE Generate Innovation Co-Creation Lab

LSE’s Social Innovation Lab was launched in 2007 as a hub for evidence-based research on management and business model innovation. Since then it has grown into a platform for our global and local partners to co-create and share evidence-based knowledge on designing, managing, and scaling up context-sensitive social innovations – aimed at poverty reduction and increasing basic human freedoms.

LSE Generate drop-ins

The Financial Support Office holds regular Drop-in Sessions where a designated member of staff is available to answer student queries.

Prior to contacting us or attending a Drop-in Session it is highly recommended that you review the information on our current student web pages. If after exploring the information you still wish to speak to a member of the team, please do attend one of our Zoom Drop-in Sessions.

Find support

Programmes

LSE Generate SOS

Whether you’re looking to watch recordings of our recent webinars, find an inspirational podcast for your listening pleasure, or keep up with the most recent events/funding opportunities both within LSE Generate and in the wider entrepreneurial eco-system…it’s all here!

Our SOS Guide is divided into three key areas:

  • Survival - Gain valuable insights from fellow entrepreneurs on their experiences through challenging times, find out about financial support that may be available to you.
  • Opportunity - Spotting and taking advantage of opportunities (CHANGE)
  • Sanity - Resources for entrepreneurs to maintain Founder wellness.

LSE Generate Accelerator

LSE Generate Accelerator Programme (GAP)

GAP is our brand new accelerator

As an institution that is focused on the betterment of society, we envisage a tomorrow driven by social sciences innovation and in strong alignment with the UNSDGs framework. We are delighted to announce the launch of our second LSE Generate Accelerator Programme (GAP), kicking off as we ease ourselves out of lockdown and start to address and solve the amplified issues of our time, here in the UK and across the globe. We believe GAP will become our powerful vehicle through which impactful innovation can flourish.

LSE Generate International Innovation Programme

Generate is going global. With over 70% of our alumni entrepreneurs operating in a post pandemic and post-Brexit world, beyond UK shores, we support our community, wherever they are in the world.

Generate’s International Chapters proactively connects, educates and inspires our alumni to build and scale impactful business for the betterment of society.

LSE Generate elleSE

elleSE is our pioneering programme aimed at young women entrepreneurs who are creating global impact businesses across the world. The initiative supports early-stage women innovators build and scally socially-driven businesses that contribute to the “betterment of society”.

In the knowledge that women innovators are essential to a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, we’ve created and curated a programme that supports our incredible women founders here at the School.

Students and alumni can access a unique all-year round offering that includes skills development programmes, coding schools, female-founder accelerator streams, investor introductions, pitching practices, retreats, mentoring, Founderships (entrepreneurial grants for women Founders) and a host of digital resources. We aim to replicate the elleSE support programme across our international chapters in Chengdu, Mumbai, LA, NY, Africa, Lisbon and other hubs that we aim to build across the next five years!

Within our acceleration programmes we will have specific support for our women founders that will include business bootcamps, skills-shares, mentoring and coaching, financial support and co-Founder support.

LSE Generate UK Start-Up Visa

A Start-up visa can enable non-British entrepreneurs to stay in the UK to work on a new venture after graduating. This is a great way to benefit from the buzzing entrepreneurial ecosystem that London provides.

The visa applies to graduates who demonstrate high entrepreneurial potential and wish to start a UK business for the first time. LSE is delighted to be an endorsing body under the scheme, through the LSE Generate funding competition.

LSE Generate Mentorpreneurship

In partnership with Oak North, we are supporting the development of socially conscious businesses and inspiring entrepreneurial thinking through mentorship.

The ‘Mentorpreneurship’ programme is the first university run initiative of its kind to engage past, current and future student entrepreneurs in a ‘life-cycle’ of mentoring. In partnership with OakNorth, founded by LSE alumni Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, the programme will support the development of socially conscious businesses and inspire entrepreneurial thinking, by focusing on the fundamental role of mentorship and empowering people to connect with each other, network, and build mentoring relationships via our specially created website and app.

Incubators & Accelerators

LSE Generate/Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access All
  • Audiences Students and alumni

ZINC

Zinc brings together the brightest minds to build and scale a brand new way to solve the most important societal problems faced by the developed world.

Our approach empowers the most talented and motivated people in the world to redirect their careers and have a large-scale social impact as entrepreneurs, researchers and intrapreneurs.

Bethnal Green Ventures

Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC

We invest in ambitious founders using technology to tackle big social and environmental problems that aim to radically improve millions of lives.

We are Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC. We back ambitious founders using technology to tackle big social and environmental problems that aim to radically improve millions of lives.

Founders Factory

We power founders
to go further, faster.

We partner with the world’s best founders and
corporates to build, fund, and scale ambitious startups worldwide.

Entrepreneur First

The best place in the world to meet your co-founder and build a technology startup from scratch.

Techstars

Working with you to unleash your potential. Access to capital, mentorship, talent, and infrastructure.

LSE Generate

LSE Generate supports students and alumni to build a socially responsible business, in the UK and beyond. Our year-round programme is packed with funding competitions, events and networking opportunities. We support LSE innovators at each stage of your entrepreneurial journey and provide the infrastructure to build, develop and scale your ideas.

COVID-19 Support

LSE Generate: Isolation Insights

From 16 August 2021, double-vaccinated adults will no longer be required to self-isolate, as long as they received their final dose of an MHRA-approved vaccine in the UK vaccination programme at least 14 days prior to contact with a positive case.

Double-vaccinated individuals and under 18s who are identified as close contacts are advised to take a PCR test as soon as possible to check if they have the virus and for variants of concern. You can order a PCR home test online or by calling 119, or going to a test site.

As double-vaccinated people identified as close contacts are still at risk of being infected, you are advised to consider other precautions such as wearing a face covering in enclosed spaces, and limit contact with other people, especially with anyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable. You will not be required to self-isolate while you wait for the results of the PCR test.

Anyone who tests positive following the PCR test will still be legally required to self-isolate, irrespective of their vaccination status or age in order to break onward chains of transmission. Meanwhile anyone who develops COVID-19 symptoms should self-isolate and get a PCR test, and remain in isolation until the result comes back.

LSE Generate: You’ll Never Walk Alone

We’re Better Together

Excited… Anxious… Uncertain?

A brand new initiative where we aim to stand by your side to tackle your personal and professional worries

We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.

Brené Brown

The past year has left us with a cacophony of emotions. Although we are the home of business building at the LSE, we strive to provide all-encompassing support for our entrepreneurs. After this challenging year, founder wellness is more important than ever and this is why we have created ‘We’re Better Together’, a new initiative where we aim to stand by your side to tackle your personal and professional worries and celebrate your start-up successes through a dedicated programme on wellbeing.

This series of events includes targeted sessions, such as meditation, as well as useful resources and fun activities to build resilience and provide a well-deserved escape from the weight of the past year. Keep an eye out for new events, download our wellbeing pack and visit us in the GenDen, open 5 days a week – we can’t wait to welcome you back!

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

LSE Generate Creation Cave

Welcome to The GenDen

Our brand new, awe-inspiring, fully kitted coworking space is now open for business!

If you need some space to work and are looking for an inspiring environment to do so, we’ve got your back!

It’s brand new. It’s fully kitted. It’s exceptionally cosy. It’s the perfect area to engage with the LSE entrepreneurial community. In short… there really is no better place to work!

The Wing

A growing community of women across the country and globe, gathering together to work, connect, and thrive.

The Conduit

The Conduit is a collaborative community of people committed to creating a just, prosperous and sustainable future. Our members are entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, business leaders, activists, civil-society leaders and policymakers, bringing together knowledge, networks and capital for sustained positive impact.

Impact Hub

A membership community of entrepreneurs, activists and creatives taking action to drive positive social and environmental change.

Second Home

A workspace and cultural venue for entrepreneurs, innovators and social impact organisations.

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

Investment, Grants & Funding

LSE Generate Founderships

Founderships are educational innovation grants, designed to help provide financial security for LSE entrepreneurs as they build their business.

Setting up a business comes with its own challenges. To name a few, it can take up to three years to generate real business profit, students graduate with average debts of £50,800 and the costs of living in London are much higher than other areas of the UK and Europe.

Our unique Founderships allow entrepreneurs an essential opportunity to focus on market researching their ideas, to engage with future users, to stay closely connected with the LSE entrepreneurial ecosystem, and to build a product or service that can eventually serve as a solution to pressing global problems.

The Founderships offer up to seven months of (equity-free) funding and a tailored advisory package, aiming to provide students with enough capital and an adequate support structure to spend a dedicated amount of time creating an enterprise that is well on the way to being investor-ready.

Students and alumni might think it’s impossible to journey directly from academia to entrepreneurship, but through the Foundership, a viable and realistic path to incorporating and scaling an enterprise opens up.

University of Sussex

Get connected

Calendars of Events

Sussex Innovation Centre

We’re a business incubation network, supporting entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups across the South East from our headquarters at the University of Sussex. Our members are ambitious companies who are innovators in their field - solving important problems in new ways. We give founders the strategic insight to help them grow their business, and provide practical resources to help manage that growth sustainably.

Regular SINC events

Search our upcoming events….

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Academic, researcher, student and graduate

SINC event listings

Search our upcoming events…

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Students, academics, researchers and graduates

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Enactus Sussex

About ENACTUS Society

We are part of a global network of students that partner with companies to drive social change through enterprise and we are waiting for you.

Want to make real change in people’s lives and have fun in the process? Then this is the society for you!

Every year we take on projects which set out to help achieve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Our team of highly motivated individuals is ready to welcome you on board and fill you in on this year’s projects such as Project REVIVE which repurposes old laptops and donates them to people in countries that do not have access to technology, and project EQUIP, which aims to teach disadvantaged girls in the KZN and Gauteng areas of South Africa who live in extreme poverty how to garden specific foods.

Business Society

Are you interested in business? Do you want to broaden your mind and expand your employability skills?

Then join the Business Society!

We hold regular workshops, talks, networking events and other social events to make your time at university more enjoyable.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Free monthly online Legal Clinic

We provide free legal advice on Employment Law, Family Law, Housing Law and Criminal Justice Law issues, drawing on our academic expertise and legal practice links. Please see the below links for more information on these services:

Employment Law Clinic

Family Law Clinic

Housing Law Clinic

Criminal Justice Law Clinic

Migration Law Clinic

Learn more

In-Person Courses

MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Entrepreneurial skills are essential for career success – whether in small and medium-sized enterprises, your own business or on project-based venture teams in large companies.

This MSc combines academic knowledge with practical skills. You’ll learn to design, manage and grow new ventures in a challenging business world. You’ll gain the skills needed to make reasoned and creative contributions to problem-solving in dynamic, complex and uncertain entrepreneurial contexts.

You’ll also increase your awareness of ethics and responsible business practices. You’ll be able to reflect on ethical and moral issues in entrepreneurship and innovation.

You’ll learn from and network with visiting speakers. These include entrepreneurs running successful and innovative social and commercial enterprises. You’ll also benefit from our close collaboration with the Sussex Innovation Centre, NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator and local organisations that offer strategic advice for entrepreneurs, start-ups and innovative growing companies.

Newsletters

Sussex Innovation Centre (SINC) Newsletter

Read the latest business news from Sussex Innovation

Information Sources

SINC website

Are you ready to grow? You’re 5 times more likely to succeed with us.

Only 15% of new companies ever go on to be profitable. At Sussex Innovation, 85% of members become sustainable businesses with our support. Not only that - 1 in 6 of those grow to achieve turnover in the millions. We help start-ups, scale-ups and corporate innovation projects to succeed with confidence. We provide a range of support services, access to professional networks, and affordable, serviced office space in Sussex, Brighton or Croydon for those who need a base.

So whatever your line of work, click on the tab above that best describes your business, and find out how we can help you grow.

SINC Book an Appointment

If you think your business might benefit from our support, please get in touch to discuss your specific requirements by completing our enquiry form.

SINC Book an Appointment

If you think your business might benefit from our support, please get in touch to discuss your specific requirements by completing our enquiry form.

SINC In-box

Accessing your files

Guidance for Sussex staff

Staff should store all their files in Box and OneDrive:

  • For files that are used by your team, you should use Box. This is because Box folders can have several owners, so if somebody leaves your team you won’t lose access to all the files that your team relies on.
    Box is the replacement for the G Drive.
  • For your own work files, use Microsoft OneDrive. You can still share folders or files with colleagues in order to collaborate, but you will be the only owner of your files.
    OneDrive is the replacement for the N drive.

SINC events

Search our upcoming events

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access All
  • Audiences Staff, students, alumni, general public

SINC Twitter

The Sussex Innovation Centre is a leading business incubator and centre for research commercialisation at the University of Sussex. Sister account

@SI_Croydon

Entrepreneurship & Startups - Book an appointment

Entrepreneurship

Are you interested in starting a business, going freelance or developing a social enterprise? Find out how we can support and develop your business ideas.

One-to-one appointments

Book an Entrepreneurship Exploration appointment with a member of our team. This will help us to understand what you need to move forward. In a one-to-one you can:

  • Discuss ideas, plan next steps and learn how to develop a business
  • Get specialist advice on everything from funding and finance to marketing and intellectual property protection
  • Access mentors and experienced founders who can help you grow
  • Receive coaching and feedback to keep you on target and on point
  • Learn about other opportunities available through the university network

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/entrepreneurship

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access All

Entrepreneurship & Startups Team

Are you interested in starting a business, going freelance or developing a social enterprise? Find out how we can support and develop your business ideas.

Find support

Programmes

The Catalyst Programme

Who are the Catalyst Team?

We are a team of University of Sussex graduates able to deliver all sorts of business related projects, with the supervision and strategic insight of the senior management team.

The Catalyst programme at the Sussex Innovation Centre offers growing companies the most flexible and risk free way to tackle their ‘to-do lists’.

Incubators & Accelerators

SINC Incubator

Our start-up incubator

Start a business with high ambition from day one.

If you’re starting a new venture, we’re here to help you get off to the right start, make smarter decisions, build skills and get results, faster.

From provoking strategic thought, to testing assumptions and providing high level support to keep you on track, we can help you to truly understand your customers, develop new market niches and clarify hidden value in your products or services.

SINC membership plans

Become a Sussex Innovation member

What does your business need to help it grow?

We know that every business is different, and needs a different kind of support in order to thrive. All of our memberships are designed to give our members the skills and confidence that they need to take their idea to market and then grow sustainably, year on year.

Aspect Acelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

Sussex Incubation hubs

Business growth hub

How do you keep the momentum that you had as a start-up?

When you’re just starting out, it can feel like your business is growing with every passing day. You find your first customers, hire more people, your revenue keeps climbing. But many businesses hit a brick wall when it comes to scaling further. Once you’ve reached sustainability, it’s very easy for growth to plateau - whatever your ambitions.

At Sussex Innovation, we help you realise your ambitions for rapid growth by supporting you through the growing pains that all businesses experience. This includes areas such as new business strategy, infrastructure, recruitment and establishing new industry relationships. We’ll give you the confidence, direction and skills you need to take your business to the next level.

Croydon Hub

Sussex Innovation Croydon

Why is there a Sussex Innovation Centre in Croydon?

Croydon is a burgeoning hub for exciting new businesses thanks to affordable office space, excellent transport links to the rest of London and the South East, and a proactive community that is driving ever more start-ups and scale-ups to relocate here. Croydon - the ‘Silicon Valley of South London’ - is now officially London’s fastest growing tech cluster.

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

StartUp Sussex Social Impact Competition

Social Impact Prize

See how you could make a difference by winning the Social Impact Prize.

About the prize

Have you ever noticed a challenge or problem that you would like to solve for people?

Apply for the Social Impact Prize and you could win £10,000 worth of support to turn your idea into a reality.

The Social Impact Prize is open to any current University of Sussex student, or graduate from the past three years, who has an idea for a business that will create a positive social impact.

A social enterprise is a business that re-invests its profits in supporting a particular community or cause through a sustainable business model.

If you have a business idea that has social impact at its heart, we want to hear from you.

The Social Impact Prize runs as part of the Startup Sussex programme.

The winning application will be given £10,000 worth of support to develop their business. This includes a £5,000 bursary, £3,000 of ongoing mentoring from the Sussex Innovation Support Team, virtual membership of the Sussex Innovation Centre and publicity for your enterprise.

Startup Sussex Competition

StartUp Sussex competition

Read about how the StartUp Sussex competition can help you set up your own business and carve out your own career.

About StartUp Sussex

Whether you want to make a ground-breaking product, a world-changing website, the next killer app, or you’re eager to make a difference through social enterprise, StartUp Sussex can help you develop entrepreneurial skills to see if you have more than just an idea.

StartUp Sussex is an annual competition for enterprising Sussex students and graduates run by the Sussex Innovation Centre.

Finalists and runners-up are awarded valuable start-up funding of up to £10,000.

Santander Emerging Entrepreneurs

Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme 2020

2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. To celebrate, this year we will be running the Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme, a programme of dedicated support for student and graduate start-ups across our partner universities.

The aim of the programme is to support you on your business journey providing you with the information and networks to grow and scale your business.

The programme will run from May – October 2020 and will feature a Virtual Launch Event, exclusive Online Content, and an Accelerator. The programme will culminate with a National Final in September where you will have a chance to win a share of £90,000.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Sussventures

Suss Ventures, synonymous with sourcing sustainable companies for our sustainable investors and corporate partners.

The University of Manchester

Get connected

Calendars of Events

MEC regular events

Events

Our events are a great way for you to gain valuable insights, tips, tricks, recommendations, and advice to inspire you to take the next step on your entrepreneurial journey. These events are the backbone of the start-up ecosystem where speakers and participants share their experiences, and where you begin to build your networks.

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Manchester Entrepreneurs Student Union Society

Manchester Entrepreneurs aims to promote entrepreneurship and show that building a business or working in a startup is a viable career path. Furthermore, we help young founders to become great entrepreneurs through our tailored acceleration programme.

Innovation Forum Manchester

Located in the heart of the largest student community in the UK, Innovation Forum Manchester focuses its activities on the most dynamic academic an economic region in the country outside the Golden Triangle.

Innovation Forum Manchester was created amidst the Research and Knowledge Exchange strategy in Manchester Metropolitan University and works in order to promote inter-generational knowledge and leadership exchange in the North West. Manchester is currently home to some of the biggest universities in the UK.

Enactus Manchester

Enabling Progress Through Entrepreneurial Action

WE WORK WITH 60 UNIVERSITIES IN THE UK DEVELOPING A NATIONAL NETWORK OF SOCIALLY-MINDED YOUNG LEADERS OF THE FUTURE WHO TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES AND SOCIETY THROUGH REAL LIFE SOCIAL ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE ENTERPRISE

She’s the Business conference

She’s the Business 2020

The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre will once again be celebrating women in business by hosting another inspirational event aimed at empowering women to embrace their inner-creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

Start-up Spotlight

Startup Spotlight: Why is now the right time to start a sustainable business?

Join the Masood Enterprise Centre for the first StartUp Spotlight event of 2020, where you’ll hear from Vlad Mukhachev who created his Manchester-based company, Mindful Store, whilst in his final year at University.

Venture Crawl

Venture Crawl 2021

A full-day tour around Manchester visiting some of the city’s most innovative hot spots sounds exciting, right?

Set-up in 2017 by London Universities, the Venture Crawl has since grown to an annual event with 3 countries, 16 universities, 10 buses and 400 students participating in 2020, with events taking place in Birmingham, Chicago, Melbourne and Manchester!

This unique, one-day event is aimed at entrepreneurial-minded students to explore and be inspired by Manchester’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. This event is designed to give you the chance to connect to real-world businesses, develop your skills, confidence and creative thinking, as well as establish useful connections and networks.

Whilst we can’t jump aboard the Venture Crawl bus this year, we’ve collaborated with other Universities and we’re working hard to re-create the experience digitally for you to connect with the UK’s most exciting start-ups, venture capital firms and enterprise hubs to learn about start-up journeys, social enterprise and impact, sustainability and more! The route’s still being plotted, but you can expect to hear from big names such as Ben Francis (GymShark founder), Rolls-Royce, Mercarto Metropolitano, and Octopus Ventures.

Santander Emerging Entrepreneurs Could only find info for the year 2020.

Coming Soon! Stay tuned

27-28 November

by the UniCS Team

Learn more

In-Person Courses

Enterprise Elective Taught Units

Taught units

Discover opportunities to enhance your studies and career prospects with taught units in enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

Masters in Innovation, Management and Entrepreneurship

Develop the skills to address the challenges of innovation and technological change.

Learn how new, innovative products get to market, how companies introduce innovation and how enterprises set up new ventures. Engage with the challenges faced by individual entrepreneurs, small and large companies and governments in delivering innovation.

The course is taught by members of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research – a world-leading centre of excellence in the study of science, technology and innovation policy and management.

Newsletters

Information Sources

MEC Enterprise Resource Centre

Explore our range of enterprise resources that are designed to support students, staff and recent graduates who aspire to start a business.

Enterprise Resource Centre

Whether you need help with finance, marketing advice, human resources guidance or support with dealing with suppliers, the Centre’s enterprise resources can help you overcome many hurdles. If you’re at the beginning of your journey, there’s also guidance on coming up with a viable business idea.

MEC Facebook

We are the focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship at The University of Manchester.

Find support

Programmes

Researcher to Innovator (R2I)

The Researcher to Innovator (R2I) bootcamp offers an introduction to commercialisation and aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset of Early Career Researchers, develop their innovative thinking, as well as enhance their understanding of the commercialisation process.

The R2I bootcamp comprises of a series of interactive and informative, personal and professional development sessions, and introduces planning tools for those with ideas that may have the potential to be taken forward.

The outcome of the bootcamp could be:

  • A completed researcher canvas outlining a plan to further their research.
  • A completed lean canvas outlining market discovery activities and the key conversations needed to quickly validate any initial assumptions.

Enterprise School

The focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Our mission is to develop entrepreneurial skills in students, staff and graduates across The University of Manchester. We support a dynamic culture within our excellent facilities, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to succeed through entrepreneurship education, co-curricular activities, mentorship and all the support needed to launch a business. We empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to take control of their futures.

SUCCESS programme

Aspect Research Commercialisation (ARC) Accelerator

The ARC Accelerator (formerly called the SUCCESS Programme) is a first-of-its-kind opportunity specifically designed to help social science academics and researchers explore turning their research ideas into businesses or ventures to help people, society and the economy.

Through the ARC Accelerator we aim to showcase how research commercialisation, in particular creating ventures, can provide a bold new path to enable social scientists to translate their research into solving social problems or driving economic growth.

Just as the STEM world is increasingly realising the value of ventures to scale up the impact of research, we believe the ARC Accelerator will catalyse a new era of research-backed ventures from social scientists, driving innovation across social, economic and business problems.

MEC UK Start-Up Visa

Start-up visa

We’re proud to belong to a global university and we support our international students and graduates to establish businesses both in the UK and in their home countries.

One of the routes is through the Start-up visa, which is for early-stage, high-potential entrepreneurs who are starting a business for the first time in the UK. It grants successful applicants a two-year stay in the UK, during which entrepreneurs will spend the majority of their time developing their businesses.

The new scheme replaces the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa and could provide you with the ideal opportunity to achieve your vision.

The new criteria on which the decision to endorse or not is based, are more stringent than for the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa. The new businesses will need to be innovative with a clear sustainable competitive advantage over existing provision, they will need to be scalable with potential to create substantial jobs and growth not just in the UK but abroad as well, and that the applicants will need to be able to demonstrate that they have the necessary skills and competencies to run the business.

Incubators & Accelerators

Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe)

Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research” (ICURe) is a 16-week full-time online customer discovery programme designed using lean start-up methodology and funded by Innovate UK.

It trains, funds and supports teams led by university early-career researchers to determine whether there is a market for products or services that utilise their research, science or technology. Each successful team will receive up to £30,000 of funding to ‘get out of the lab’ and validate their commercially-promising ideas in the marketplace.

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation,

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Accelerate ME (run through Manchester Entrepreneurs Society)

Helping young founders become great entrepreneurs.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

Enterprise Zone

The establishment of an Enterprise Zone provides important incentives for growth, but these can only be successful if built on a strong and commercially appealing offer. In the case of Manchester Airport City, this offer is clear. The Airport and University Hospital South Manchester are key economic assets, one offering connections to global markets and the other generating knowledge related to a growth sector. The Manchester Enterprise Zone includes complementary sites that will accommodate growth linked by supply chains and knowledge spillovers. With the right property and place offer, the commercial attractiveness of this location was unquestionable. The first five years of the Enterprise Zone have only enhanced confidence in this concept.

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

Blockchain Ignition Awards

his student-led non-profit organisation has a vision to build a community-driven by creating a positive impact through blockchain technology and we support its annual competition.

The Blockchainers Awards Competition 2020 aimed to inspire entrepreneurship and fund the blockchain-based ideas of students, staff and recent graduates building on the spirit of enterprise and innovation within one of the hottest areas of tech right now.

Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award

This annual award aims to help research staff and students at The University of Manchester establish new companies involving graphene or other 2D materials.

The award acts as seed funding to enable winning innovators to take the first steps towards turning their novel idea into a reality. It recognises the impact that high-level, flexible, early-stage financial support has in the successful development of a business.

Prizes of £50,000 and £20,000 will be awarded to the individuals or teams who can best demonstrate how their technology relating to graphene and other 2D materials can be applied to a viable commercial opportunity.

Bright Ideas

Bright Ideas is Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s annual student ideas competition where you have the opportunity to get your hands on a prize to help take your idea forward. If you have an idea for a new business, a social project, the application of technology, or something completely different - we want to know about it.

At the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, we believe that anyone can have a bright idea, and that bright ideas can come from anywhere, regardless of background. If you’re an undergraduate or postgraduate student here at The University of Manchester and have an idea – no matter how big or small - then you could get your hands on a £200 prize!

Venture Further

The annual start-up competition for all current students, researchers and recent graduates at The University of Manchester offers a £75,000 prize fund.

Want to start your own business? Here’s your chance to win up to £10,000 and make it a reality with our annual start-up competition.

Turn your ideas into reality and win significant early-stage funding to start your own business. It’s not all about the cash though. This competition will introduce you to a world of support programmes, workshops, mentors and networks to grow your ideas. If you have a viable business proposal then get involved.

Your entry needs to be a viable and credible business proposal that has the potential to succeed. If your entry is successful, you will be asked to pitch your business proposal to a panel of expert judges for a chance to win one of the cash prizes.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Flying Starter

Help your idea take off with a Flying Starter Award from the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre.

  • Do you have an innovative business idea?
  • Are you a member of staff at The University of Manchester?
  • Apply today for a Flying Starter Award of up to £2,000 to test its viability.

Available every month until the end of the current academic year, 31 July 2021.

Funding up to £2,000 is available for staff to test their entrepreneurial idea, find out if the idea is viable, learn more about what is needed to progress the idea and even create a prototype product.

For successful award winners, we will provide informative workshops to hone your business cases together with a range of mentoring opportunities to ensure your enterprises continue to flourish.

Kickstarter Fund

Give your start-up business the Kickstart it needs.

Generously donated by alumnus Nick Sanders, the Kickstarter Fund offers you the opportunity to validate and test your assumptions of the market as you begin to develop your idea. Sitting alongside this is a package of support from the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) team built around developing the idea together with enhancing your skills as an entrepreneur.

Nick Sanders, keen to support the next generation of entrepreneurs, spent his early career in the aerospace industry and now manages a portfolio of private businesses and advises Private Equity firms on new or existing investments. Nick actively engages with the early-stage entrepreneurs funded through this opportunity to offer advice and support their development.

Cardiff University

Get connected

Calendars of Events

Enterprise & Start-up event listings

Enterprise is all about thinking creatively, spotting opportunities, and making things happen.

The Enterprise & Start-Up Team runs workshops, competitions and events to help students develop their skills, networks and confidence. Browse our upcoming events on the Cardiff University intranet: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/​students/​your-future/​start-a-business

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Enactus Cardiff university

Enactus UK is a global organisation that has student lead teams in universities all over the world. Enactus Cardiff is an opportunity for Cardiff students to make a difference in their local community whilst developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders. Enactus Cardiff is one of 50 university teams in the UK, each stimulating student led, real life projects which generate economic advantage for members of the local and global communities. Our team applies business concepts to develop community outreach projects; the main purpose of which is to empower those in need and, as a consequence, transform the lives of people across and beyond the South of Wales.

On top of the opportunity to help sustainably change people’s lives, Enactus offers students the chance to gain and develop key business and employability skills, as well as media, environmental and personal skills. Throughout the year, Enactus offers internal and national training programs in leadership and project management skills. At the end of the year, students have the opportunity to represent Enactus Cardiff at the prestigious National Competition held in Canary Wharf, London. Not only is this a chance to showcase the impact Enactus Cardiff has had, it also acts as a recruitment channel providing a chance to network with the world’s leading companies who sponsor the organisation.

If you wish to develop a mind for business and a heart for the world, Enactus Cardiff is the best, most enjoyable and fulfilling society you could join this year!

Enterprise Workshop (for enterprise start-up support)

Enterprise is all about thinking creatively, spotting opportunities, and making things happen.

The Enterprise & Start-Up Team runs workshops, competitions and events to help students develop their skills, networks and confidence. Browse our upcoming events on the Cardiff University intranet: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/​students/​your-future/​start-a-business

Enterprise Workshop (for enterprise skills support)

Enterprise is all about thinking creatively, spotting opportunities, and making things happen.

The Enterprise & Start-Up Team runs workshops, competitions and events to help students develop their skills, networks and confidence. Browse our upcoming events on the Cardiff University intranet: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/​students/​your-future/​start-a-business

Learn more

In-Person Courses

Offering Title

Offering Description

  • SHAPE-orientated No
  • Access External

Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship (MSc)

Develop your own business plan for a new venture with support from academic experts and experienced entrepreneurs.

Our MSc in Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship is designed for graduates from all disciplinary backgrounds who want to discover new ways of doing things, by launching their own company or joining an existing organisation in a development or growth position.

We promote a culture of enterprise among our students, which was recognised when we received the Small Business Charter award in 2017. We’ll help you realise your business potential, providing opportunities to learn from local businesses and social enterprises.

Our team of academic experts and business partners will prepare you for intrepreneurship and entrepreneurship, helping you explore the economic environment in which organisations operate, acquire financial backing, manage innovations and market products and services.

They’ll use internationally recognised research and real-world examples to encourage you to reflect on perspectives and practices, so you’ve got what it takes to start your own business venture or innovate in an existing organisation.

Information Sources

Enterprise & Start-up team

Enterprise is all about thinking creatively, spotting opportunities, and making things happen.

The Enterprise & Start-Up Team runs workshops, competitions and events to help students develop their skills, networks and confidence. Browse our upcoming events on the Cardiff University intranet: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/​students/​your-future/​start-a-business

Book an introductory start-up meeting

Wherever you are in your journey, our support package helps you bring your ideas to life with personalised support and guidance. Our package is split into three stages to help you navigate your way to starting your very own venture.

Our package offers business mentor meetings, start-up workshops, skills development workshops, online tools, and funding to help you bring your idea to life.

To start your journey book onto an Introductory Start-up Meeting on your Careers Account (https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/​students/​your-future/​start-a-business/​events)

Find support

Programmes

Big Ideas Wales

The scheme supports young entrepreneurs to learn business principles, develop their ideas and progress to business start up.

Each year Big Ideas Wales hold two Bootcamp to Business weekends for young entrepreneurs aged 18-25.

Start-up Support Package

Wherever you are in your journey, our support package helps you bring your ideas to life with personalised support and guidance. Our package is split into three stages to help you navigate your way to starting your very own venture.

Our package offers business mentor meetings, start-up workshops, skills development workshops, online tools, and funding to help you bring your idea to life.

Summer start-up Week

Whether you’re looking to develop start-up ideas, make it as a freelancer, grow your own business or social enterprise, the Summer Start-up Week Festival has something for everyone.

With events taking place across 4 stages and a festival line-up containing some of the biggest and brightest entrepreneurs in Wales, our 5-day online course will help you nurture, develop and grow your business. You’ll roam the virtual festival grounds taking in a mix of keynote speakers, interactive workshops, panel discussions, live Q & A’s and much, much more. Across each stage, you’ll have your pick of expert speakers, covering everything from research and marketing to cashflow and funding, giving you the key elements needed for a successful business, freelance career or social enterprise.

When you’re not busy enjoying the festivities, relax and unwind back at the campsite by joining our Summer Start-up Week community Facebook group. Here, you can take part in daily competitions, exclusive events, hang-out, share ideas, knowledge and network with fellow festival goers.

Start-up Visa Programme

The Start Up Visa (formerly known as the Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur Visa) allows international students, graduates and prospective international entrepreneurs to develop and operate a business in the UK. To apply for the visa you will require a letter of endorsement from a participating higher education institution (HEI) or a business organisation with a history of supporting UK entrepreneurs.

Cardiff Metropolitan will only endorse individuals who have studied at our home campus in Cardiff.

Cardiff Metropolitan has been authorised to endorse up to 20 visas annually to businesses that meet the necessary criteria outlined by the Home Office. The University is required to have a system in place to process applications and monitor endorsed businesses. This system is known as the International Entrepreneurs Programme and is overseen by the Centre for Entrepreneurship in conjunction with International Office at Cardiff Metropolitan.

Incubators & Accelerators

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

Cardiff Business Technology Centre

Flexible central Cardiff office space.

Social Science Research Park SPARK

Our mission is to develop innovative solutions to societal problems through collaborative research activity.

We are designing a place for creativity and collaboration.

The Social Science Research Park (SPARK) is being developed as part of the University’s £300m Innovation Campus on Maindy Road. It will form part of the Innovation Campus.

Collaboration

SPARK will be a communal space that removes barriers and promotes face-to-face interaction. Attractive and stimulating, it is designed to be a catalyst for change, inspiring the out-of-the-ordinary thinking we need for the complex challenges of our time. It will be a new resource, helping the University to engage with its community, governments, charities, businesses and the wider public.

The purpose-built facility will bring together world-leading researchers with practitioners, policy makers and other stakeholders. Promoting a collaborative and problem-focused approach, it will translate outstanding research into real world solutions.

Innovation Campus

We are building state-of-the-art facilities to help innovation thrive.

We have been putting ideas to work since 1883, forging partnerships across all sectors – from charities to industries, public institutions and government bodies.

Cardiff Innovation Campus will help us do more. We are turning a former railway yard into a firebox for great ideas, where thinkers meet backers and funders to spark answers to society’s challenges. And we want you to be involved.

Changing the world requires something, and somewhere, out of the ordinary. Something to spark ideas, inspire creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. A space where you can dare to dream, experiment and share those ideas with a diverse community of academics, students, business, policy makers and more.

Located at Maindy Park in the heart of Cardiff, the Campus is the door to innovation at Cardiff University and will provide cutting-edge facilities that will help researchers and students work across disciplines and with partners to influence policy and build enterprises that create products, spin-outs, start-ups and social enterprises.

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

Student Start-up Awards

The Start-up Awards are our annual ideas competition for Cardiff University students and graduates with a total shared prize pot of £20,000 in cash and support available.

There are three entry categories to choose from:

  1. Curious Explorer is for those with a brand new idea that you’d like to develop.
  2. Freedom Seeker is for those who have a developed idea with research conducted.
  3. Go-getter is for anyone already running a business, commercial project, or freelance operation which has been trading for less than two years.

Shortlisted applicants will be expected to present their idea to a panel of judges and will also be invited to the Start-up Awards celebration evening.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Santander Entrepreneur Award

We launched the Entrepreneurship Awards in 2011. Since then, it has grown to become one of the UK’s largest student and graduate business pitching competition. We reward entrepreneurs by offering equity-free funding, mentoring and start-up support. To date we have given away over £600,000 to start-ups and small businesses.

Syniad (Welsh for ‘Idea’)

Have you got an idea that could change the world?

SYNIAD competition is your chance to disrupt the ordinary in way that no one else is currently doing. Plus you get the opportunity to win a brand new iPad!

We want you to present a world changing idea to improve one of 4 areas:

  • Food and Diet

  • Material consumption

  • Transport and mobility

  • Heating and cooling

Your solution could be industrial, social, educational, or cultural – it could be global or local, radical or subtle.

Just imagine, your idea could be the next big thing!

Growing powerful ideas and being able to share them in an inspiring way are valuable skills needed across all parts of society, work and business.

The University of Sheffield

Get connected

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

AIESEC

AIESEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales) is the world’s largest youth-led organisation, active in over 1700 universities in 124 countries. At Sheffield it is led by students through USE (University of Sheffield Enterprise), as a ‘friend’ of the Students’ Union rather than a student society. AIESEC’s core activities are focused on facilitating a global exchange scheme that provides challenging, cultural work internships for students and recent graduates. Sheffield students thus have the opportunity to participate in international exchanges that involve internships abroad, or in an AIESEC leadership programme. Students can also work to create additional jobs in Sheffield, organise events to promote leadership, or collaborate with local companies to organise other kinds of student events. Students can represent Sheffield and AIESEC UK at a range of different levels, and can themselves take on responsibility for facilitating the above activities.

Sheffield Enactus

What would the world look like if we viewed the success of others as our own?

Enactus Sheffield is a student-led social enterprise, which sits within the University’s Partnerships and Regional Engagement department. Enactus Sheffield is one of over 1,700 Enactus teams around the world, all working on developing social impact projects. Our members innovate, research and manage social impact projects which provide sustainable solutions to both local and international issues. Being part of Enactus is a unique and valuable experience as it facilitates student development in a broad range of areas, such as commercial and social entrepreneurship, technical experience and confidence building. We believe that Enactus is a great stepping stone to future employment, and a unique opportunity to learn a variety of skills in different fields.

Entrepreneurs In Residence

The Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme is a network of entrepreneurial and innovative stakeholders who play a key role in supporting our graduates, recent alumni as well as the business community. They share their knowledge and expertise on the impact of change in the industry and the skills needed to start a new business.

Learn more

Newsletters

Entrepreneurship newsletter

Through a range of programmes and activities, we’re encouraging our graduates to actively take part in solving real challenges. We’ll let you know about the latest opportunities and news in our newsletter.

Information Sources

Entrepreneurship Service

We promote a culture of excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is the act of transforming the world by solving problems, bringing social change, and creating a business or an innovative product that challenges the status quo of how we live our lives on a daily basis.

Sheffield Entrepreneurship Twitter

Looking to set up a business? Want to enhance your skills and CV? Follow us on Twitter and get involved

Entrepreneurship Success Stories

Be inspired by the journeys of entrepreneurs and guest speakers from our recent programmes and sessions, picking up tips and insights into the world of entrepreneurship.

Sheffield Alumni

You are leaders. Makers. Educators. Influencers. All 300,000 of you have one thing which connects you: Sheffield. Whether you graduated last year or decades ago, we’re here to help you stay connected - to the city, to your university and your worldwide network of other Sheffield Alumni.

Entrepreneur Induction programme

Pre-accelerator programme

This programme helps recent graduates, students and members of staff to build skills and develop a business or idea. Find out what’s involved and how to apply.

Find support

Programmes

Challenge-led entrepreneurship programme

Through a distinct programme of activities - such as challenge-led competitions and start-up support - we are encouraging our students, staff and graduates to actively take part in solving the challenges that exist locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Start-up Visa

The Start-up visa programme is one of the opportunities that has supported recent graduates from the international student community of the University. We recognise the value this programme has given in allowing overseas graduates to remain in the UK for two years and develop a business idea.

Incubators & Accelerators

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

University of Bristol

Get connected

Calendars of Events

Basecamp Careers and Enterprise Events

Enterprise events

Come to events that support you to explore start-up, entrepreneurship and enterprise skills with our Basecamp Enterprise Team and partners.

SETsquared Bristol Events

SETsquared Bristol hosts a range of events from workshops, to regular networking evenings, tech showcases, to exclusive member events

Whether you’re looking to collaborate, invest, or just want to mingle with the innovative tech companies in the SETsquared Bristol incubator, our events are a great place to start.

From workshops to help get your business off the ground, to investor showcases, there is plenty for our members and the wider community to dig into.

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Bristol Entrepreneurs Society

Develop a diverse community of the world’s next leading entrepreneurs in all fields - Startup, Small Business and Intrapreneur alike!

Bristol Entrepreneurs is committed to creating a multi-disciplinary community of students, faculty, staff and alumni, that supports and encourages the entrepreneurial activity of students at the University of Bristol.

Enactus Bristol

We are a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. With the support of Enactus UK and business partners, we help students create projects and social enterprises for the benefit of the community around us. We currently have 5 projects that you can get involved with but we are always on the look out for new ideas!

Set Squared Bristol

Grow your technology business with the support of our incubation programme

SETsquared is the global #1 University Business Incubator - a long standing enterprise partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey, which specialises in growing technology start-ups through its world class business support programmes.

Based at Engine Shed in the heart of the Bristol Enterprise Zone, SETsquared Bristol has supported over 200 ventures from a wide range of sectors, from telecoms, automotive, biotech and security to name but a few. Since launching in 2002, our members combined have raised over £432 million to date.

Currently supporting over 80 ventures, both resident and virtual, SETsquared Bristol provides a world-leading and bespoke business development support programme tailored to the size, stage, needs, and product offering of your company. Our track record proves that your tech business is more likely to succeed at SETsquared.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Start-Up Drinks Bristol

Calling all Bristol’s budding entrepreneurs! On Tuesday 11 February we welcome the first Start-up drinks of the decade!

Start-up drinks is an event run on the second Tuesday of every month in collaboration between The University of Bristol’s Basecamp Enterprise Team and The University of the West of England (UWE).

Whether you have an entrepreneurial idea, an established and growing business or you are simply interested in entrepreneurship and growing your networks, this is the place to be. But don’t just take our word for it! We spoke to local businesses and students about what they heart most about Start-up Drinks…

Learn more

Online Courses

Open online courses

The Bristol Futures open online courses are a great way for students, staff and alumni to develop essential skills and attributes and to learn about the three Bristol Futures themes of Innovation and Enterprise, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Futures. Hosted on the online FutureLearn platform, they offer the chance to work collaboratively with learners from across the world to explore interdisciplinary approaches to global challenges. They are also an essential element for students taking part in our Bristol PLUS Award.

In-Person Courses

MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Awards availableMScProgramme lengthOne year full-timeLocation of programmeClifton campusPart-time study availableNo, full-time onlyStart dateSeptember 2021

Programme overview

Do you want to change your world? Are you looking for a master’s programme that will help you develop your ideas or enable you to design your own career path? Our innovation programmes will set you on your way.

We want to educate a new generation to create and grow innovative companies and social enterprises. We also want to help graduates bring innovative insights into existing organisations to better respond to the challenges that face us all. The MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship aims to develop the high-level skills and critical competencies you will need for successful innovation and entrepreneurship.

The innovators of the 21st century will bring together diverse disciplines to deliver innovative products, services and ways of living. They will be team players, with a breadth of skills that mean they can work across specialisms and cultures. They will be designers and entrepreneurs, and have a passion for style, efficiency and sustainability. Bristol’s innovation programmes are for people who want to pursue their subject specialism in a way that enables them to apply it.

The programme will teach you how to apply your subject-specific knowledge and skills to real-world challenges and key issues, such as health, education and the environment. Your final project will be your launchpad: creating an enterprise, putting together a detailed plan and working out how to take it forward and raise investment.

Newsletters

Basecamp Newsletter

We are a team of start-up specialists that sit within the Careers Service at the University of Bristol. We provide support for start-ups and help you to develop your enterprise and entrepreneurial skills.

We regularly advertise other internal and external competitions on this page through the year. To find out about entrepreneurial opportunities and events, sign up to the Basecamp Enterprise mailing list.

Information Sources

Basecamp Enterprise Team

We are a team of start-up specialists that sit within the Careers Service at the University of Bristol. We provide start-up support for all students, and alumni up to three years after graduation.

One-to-one appointments

We offer one-to-one appointments with our Enterprise Adviser to discuss your start-up ideas. We suggest scoping out your ideas using the Business Model Canvas on the Canvanizer tool before attending your appointment. You are also required to fill out the pre- appointment form which you’ll find on booking to make the most out of your time.

Workshops

We offer workshops throughout the academic year, often delivered by external experts. Examples include: How to Deliver an Elevator Pitch and Developing a Customer Engagement Strategy. These are added throughout the year, and you can book your place on mycareer.

Hackathons

Hackathons are an all-day problem-solving workshop, offering you the chance to put your team working and idea generation skills to the test. Guest business professionals are on hand to share their experience and knowledge, and you will work in small groups. This is a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience, explore your enterprise skills and find out more about a sector. We run multiple hackathons across the year with different themes.

Appointment with Basecamp Enterprise Team

One-to-one appointments.

We offer one-to-one appointments with our Enterprise Adviser to discuss your start-up ideas. We suggest scoping out your ideas using the Business Model Canvas on the Canvanizer tool before attending your appointment. You are also required to fill out the pre- appointment form which you’ll find on booking to make the most out of your time.

  • SHAPE-orientated Yes
  • Access Internal
  • Audiences Students, staff and graduates up to the three years after graduation

SETsquared business resources for startups

SETsquared Bristol regularly publish business resources to help our member technology startups, as well as those thinking of applying, and to help those that don’t fit our membership criteria to access other areas of support.

Appointment with SETsquared Bristol

We provide a dynamic, collaborative, and supportive programme to grow your technology business.

Find support

Programmes

Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre (QTEC)

The Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre was funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) in 2016 as a skills and training hub in Quantum Systems Engineering and is a key part of the UK’s National Quantum Technology Programme. It is a world-leading pre-incubator for innovators for quantum inspired technologies.

QTEC offers quantum scientists and engineers, a safe environment to explore the commercial potential of their technology. The training programme allows them to develop the skills they need to set up a successful technology start-up and the team of expert mentors led by the QTEC management team, support each Fellow through the start-up process.

Internship Scheme

Our SME Internship Schemes enable students to gain quality, paid work experience from small and medium sized employers (SMEs) in the UK, including charities, social enterprises and startups. Each academic year we receive internship funding from different sources to provide opportunities for students who meet specific eligibility criteria

GradInvest

Are you seeking exciting investment opportunities in the range of £25k – £250k?

Can you offer your expertise to help fledgeling businesses?

Are you looking for hot prospects to take part in your accelerator programme?

Our GradInvest event offers an opportunity to get early access to the hottest new start-ups being developed by graduates from five research-intensive universities (Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey) with proven track records for enterprise.

This online event will feature 13 ventures pitching for your support to move to the next level. For some that will be seed investment, for others, it will be about finding the right grant funding, expertise, mentorship or accelerator programme to ignite their growth.

Incubators & Accelerators

Unit DX

The home of innovative science & engineering companies

Backed by the University of Bristol and Research England, our two central Bristol incubators, offer 45,000 sq ft of laboratory, office and event space for deep tech start-ups. Designed, built and run by our specialist in-house team.

We are deeply connected with the University of Bristol, supporting their world-class talent to take the next step into deep tech entrepreneurship. The University’s state of the art instrumentation, analytical services and expertise are all within walking distance.

We created our first incubator after discovering that there was no home for science companies in the city. Since opening in 2017, the building has become a hub of science and engineering entrepreneurship and is now bursting at the seams.

Our second incubator, located in Old Market, is on track for opening in 2021 and will have double the floor space allowing more much needed room for the city’s deep tech companies to grow.

Our incubators combine purpose-built laboratories, flexible offices, events space and cutting-edge instrumentation, designed, developed and run by our specialist in-house team who work with our member companies and network to provide mentoring, expertise and the resources needed for scientific innovation and business development.

Our incubators take no equity.

NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator

The NatWest Accelerator supports and empowers UK entrepreneurs to scale their businesses to the next level.

Our free Accelerator programmes specialising in High Growth, Climate, FinTech and Purpose-led provide:

  • one-to-one coaching with our experienced Acceleration Managers
  • a programme of thought leadership and events
  • access to a network of like-minded peers, supported by our Ecosystem Managers
  • focused support with access to experts from across your specialism
  • use of our modern co-working spaces in one of our nationwide hubs

SETsquared Incubation programme

SETsquared Bristol provides a dynamic, bespoke, and supportive environment to grow your technology business. Launched in 2002 by the University of Bristol, and based at Engine Shed, we are currently supporting over 80 innovative ventures.


All technology businesses can benefit from our high quality support environment, guidance on business growth, and strong links to university expertise, whether you are from the private sector or a university spinout.


SETsquared, the Global #1 University Business Incubator, is a long standing enterprise partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey, which specialises in growing technology start-ups through its world class business incubation programme.

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

Bristol & Bath Science Park

Where great minds come together

Bristol & Bath Science Park is a world-class environment that provides the space, flexibility and support for science and technology businesses to accelerate their growth and success.

In line with Government advice regarding wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed places where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, we require masks to be worn (unless exempt), whilst moving around our building and we thank you in
advance for your co-operation

Bristol Robotics Laboratory

Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) is the most comprehensive academic centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK. It is a collaborative partnership between the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and the University of Bristol, and home to a vibrant community of over 450 academics, researchers and industry practitioners.

SETsquared Bristol

SETsquared Bristol provides office space to over 20 innovative companies within an amazing community of entrepreneurs. It is located on the top floor of Bristol’s vibrant enterprise hub, Engine Shed, a 2 minutes’ walk from Temple Meads station. The building is a blend of contemporary design with an industrial vibe. Brunel’s original building features exposed stonework, large windows and open spaces to provide a safe and relaxing building environment.

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

New Enterprise Competition

The New Enterprise Competition is the University of Bristol’s flagship start-up competition, run by the Basecamp Enterprise Team.

Every year we award £35,000 of funding to entrepreneurial students, staff and alumni. These start-ups cover a broad range of areas from jewellery design to novel vertical farming technologies.

We provide funding for all levels of start-up through three stages; supporting University of Bristol Entrepreneurs from  Ideas, through  Development  to  Growth of their ventures.

Winners join a prestigious group of start-ups and spinouts and are part of the 20-year tradition of celebrating and rewarding entrepreneurship at the University of Bristol.

Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award

The University of Bristol has signed a three-year agreement with Santander Universities, building on a decade of partnership working and philanthropic support.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Temple Quarter Engagaement Fund

The Temple Quarter Engagement Fund aims to enable staff and students to deliver activities which meet our aspirations to be a global civic university, as exemplified by the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.

This funding is for projects and activities that engage communities in Bristol. For example, this could involve community-engaged research, a student project or outreach activity.

Projects should align with the University’s aspiration for Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus to create a global civic university.

University of York

Get connected

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Entrepreneurs Society (EntSoc)

About Entrepreneurs Society (EntSoc)

Who are York Entrepreneurs?

York Entrepreneurs Society exists to promote entrepreneurial thinking and inspire people to achieve their business dreams. At York Entrepreneurs Society, we aim to teach, support and connect with student start-ups. We do this through our events, experience and networks. It doesn’t matter whether you only have a vague interest, a business idea or an already running business; we can help you develop further and turn your dreams into reality.

What is your plan for this year?

Our committee at the York Entrepreneurs Society has been hard at work crafting a bespoke offer for society members this year. The best part? Whether you are just starting out, or have made progress on your business idea(s) already, we have something for everyone. Here at York Entrepreneurs Society, we believe in you.

I am interested in turning my business idea(s) into reality. What can you do for me?

We are very proud to announce our membership package for this year. Make sure to have a read and subscribe as a member so you don’t miss out!

Our membership package:

  • Gain FREE entry to our Q&A panel events featuring a range of entrepreneurs. Learn from students realising their business dreams here at York and learned professionals from the wider business community. If you’re interested in starting a business, what could be better than learning from those who have actually done it? Invites will be sent to members either virtually or in person prior to the event, depending on current guidelines. Panel events will centre around either a given topic (how to start a business), style of business (for-profit, not-for-profit/social enterprise etc.) or industry.
  • EXCLUSIVE networking events. Do you have a business idea, but not sure where to start in terms of funding? Enjoy EXCLUSIVE access to our networking events, featuring winners of Proof of Concept (up to £500), Summer Accelerator (up to £1500) and Venture One awards (up to £10000) from the University and gain critical advice on accessing these programs. Beyond that, we aim to have opportunities to meet with those successful securing seed investment etc. for advice on winning investors with your ideas. Invites will be sent to members either virtually or in person prior to the event, depending on current guidelines.
  • EXCLUSIVE Pitch Deck Pack. ESSENTIAL for securing investment in your idea and pitching to investors. Members will get access to an EXCLUSIVE Pitch Deck Pack made in collaboration with existing entrepreneurs on campus, the York Entrepreneurs committee and Enterprise team at the University. The pack includes a range of key insights/advice tailored to you as a York student. This is being produced in collaboration with our committee, entrepreneurs on campus and the enterprise team at the university. We are aiming to send this to all members at the end of Q1 or during Q2 2021.
  • 1-1 support. As a member, you gain EXCLUSIVE access to our 1-1 support events to help both your business and personal development as an entrepreneur. Let us help you access connections and develop both your business and entrepreneurial skillset. Invites will be sent to members either virtually or in person prior to the event, depending on current guidelines.
  • At York Entrepreneurs, we want to promote you and your incredible business ideas. Introducing our Spotlight Series - As a member, you gain the ability to work with York Entrepreneurs to promote you and your business idea on our social media and connect with other entrepreneurs. We help you put your business/brand in the best position possible to reach students/other entrepreneurs on campus.
  • BONUS: An EXCLUSIVE digital newsletter at the end of the year, highlighting everything in our society and the budding entrepreneurs on campus. (That could be you!)

Sounds great! How much is the membership?

£4.99. Barely more than a large latte. A great deal if you ask us!

I’m interested. How can I sign up?

Make sure to sign up through YUSU. If you’re struggling to find us, here’s a helpful link:

https://yusu.org/​activities/​view/​entrepreneurs-society

I have a few questions. How can I reach out to you?

We’d love to hear from you. Either use the chat function as part of the YUSU site or reach out to us via our social media. We are on Facebook and Instagram.

https://www.facebook.com/​theyorkentrepreneurs

instagram.com/​yorkentrepreneurs

Our email is entrepreneurs@yusu.org

Be sure to send any questions you may have!

Enactus York

ABOUT ENACTUS YORK

Enactus is a global organisation dedicated to giving back to local communities, whilst developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. Our overall goal is to leave a long-term positive impact for local communities and the world. We create and run projects that are socially beneficial and financially sustainable. We welcome new project ideas, and will support you with resources to start your own project to make a social impact in our community. Working with Enactus UK, we can provide a range of workshops, talks, fast-tracking, networking events, and the opportunity to join international competitions to increase your employability.

By joining, not only will you gain lifelong, invaluable experiences that will look excellent on your CV, but you’ll be able to make a real difference to help others, by turning entrepreneurial ideas into sustainable projects by working with our incredible partner companies whilst you learn key leadership, problem-solving, and leadership skills as well.

At Enactus York, you will also be able to meet & collaborate with other like-minded people from across the world, all friendly, hardworking and with diverse backgrounds.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Phase One Workshops at Phase One Incubator

Phase One Incubator Programme

Foundations for a sustainable future

Phase One is an entrepreneurial start up space and programme supporting research spinouts, digital, creative, tech and science innovators to turn their ideas into sustainable businesses.

Opening in Summer 2019, Phase One is based at The Catalyst, at the heart of the University of York’s Campus East. It provides the time, space and support to start, grow and develop your business.

Developed in collaboration with partners from across the region, members benefit from a practical support programme of advice, workshops and mentoring.

Phase One members get personal, direct access to a range of specially selected partner organisations who will use their significant knowledge, skills and expertise to accelerate your growth potential.

Masterclasses Series

Masterclasses

Leaders in business, charity and the public sector speak on challenging topics.

These masterclasses attract an audience of prominient figures, students, staff and the general public.

Speakers share responses to challenges they’ve faced, and pose social, ethical, environmental and business dilemmas.

Learn more

Online Courses

Online MSc in Innovation, Leadership and Management

Develop your skills and become an innovative leader

Organisational leaders are required to respond to the rapidly changing external environment and develop innovative solutions to complex problems. The 100% online MSc Innovation, Leadership and Management is designed to foster strategic thinking by drawing on proven leadership tools to make innovative vision an operational reality. This cross-disciplinary programme has a particular focus on innovation and change management, while also supporting development in broader management disciplines.

In-Person Courses

BA (Hons) Business of the Creative Industries

Develop the leadership and entrepreneurial skills to manage and inspire the UK’s creative industries. Combine advanced business knowledge with practical production and insight into film, television, theatre and interactive media.

The creative industries are a major UK success story. Together film, television, theatre, games and music contribute £110 billion to the national economy every year. These industries are always on the look-out for talented graduates with business skills to continue the UK’s growth as it develops new international partnerships and enters new creative markets across the globe.

Drawing on our expertise and our extensive industry contacts, with teaching that intersects with production-oriented activities, you’ll develop the experience required to successfully initiate, drive and manage creative projects and businesses in this exciting area. You can explore your own creative potential - on screen, stage, or in interactive media - while acquiring the knowledge of leadership, marketing, finance and the law that is in high demand in creative sectors across the UK and the world.

You’ll graduate with the expertise to become a creative business leader ready to work with talented actors, writers, directors and designers. Your possible career paths may include becoming a producer, TV or film commissioner, or event programmer, or working in advertising or marketing and distribution within the creative industries.

Information Sources

Enterprise at York Book an Appointment

Enterprise at York supports students and recent graduates to develop their business ideas and build the skills and confidence for starting up. Discover more about what we offer below. Whether you’re looking for someone to talk to about your idea, want to learn enterprising transferable skills or apply for funding from £250 to £10,000, there’s something for everyone.

Start-Up Visa

Start-up Visa

You can find out about the Start-up visa on the GOV.UK website, and the UKCISA website.

The University will endorse recent graduates (within two years) of the University of York who meet the criteria set out in the government’s guidance.

If you are interested in applying for an endorsement, you must book an enterprise appointment to discuss your application.

Before you come to a meeting to discuss your application, please do the following:

  1. Have an outline of your business idea, ready to discuss with a member of the team
  2. Be ready to explain how you came up with your business idea
  3. Be able to demonstrate how your business is innovative
  4. Briefly explain how your idea is viable

Enterprise at York

Enterprise is not just about making money, it’s about making things happen. Whether you have ambitions of setting up your own business, or you just want to develop your set of transferable skills for the workplace, the enterprise team, based in Careers at the University of York, can help you to achieve your goals.

York Management School: Careers and Employability Team

Our dedicated careers and employability team work alongside academic staff and employers.

We work with you from your first contact with the School to help you gain the skills and knowledge to get the career that you want. We support you even after your graduation and this is reflected in our excellent graduate employment destination figures.

You get a tailored service to help you explore your career options and find a path that’s right for you.

York Unlimited

“If you’re going to live, leave a legacy.”

Step back in time and read about the lives of some of our amazing alumni. Our legacy newsletter is the place where you can reminisce about your time on campus, as it features beautiful photos of the university throughout the decades, whilst allowing us to pay tribute and remember some of our generous donors who have left a gift in their Will.

The University of York is immensely grateful for the generosity of its legacy benefactors and the life-changing opportunities only made possible by the incredible donations made in their Will. Read about their stories in the third edition of our Legacy Newsletter.

Find support

Programmes

Explore Enterprise

Explore Enterprise

Starting up a business can be daunting to say the least. So why not start your business journey with like-minded people in the same position with our Explore Enterprise programme?

Why Explore Enterprise?

Our five week programme runs from weeks 6-10 during Autumn and Spring term and will teach you all the basics of starting your own business through interactive, weekly workshops; with a chance to show off all you’ve learned in a pitching competition at the end. This is a great way to build the foundations of your business knowledge, and meet other students at the start of their own business journeys.

Year in Enterprise: Innovators at York

Year in Enterprise

Innovators at York

What is it?

The Year in Enterprise is a chance for you to get academic credit for having a go at starting your own business. You will remain registered as a student and will have access to a support package for the year to make sure you and your business get the most out of the year. If accepted on the programme you can start anytime from 1 July, provided you complete 9 months of experience before next June.

Who is it for?

Any undergraduate student currently in their final year of study is eligible to apply.

What about my degree?

Your degree is unaffected by participation in the Year in Enterprise. The only change would be that you would graduate a year later with ‘Year in Enterprise’ added to your certificate. If you don’t complete the Year in Enterprise, you would simply graduate with your existing degree a year later.

What support is on offer?

  • A fee waiver of £1850. This can be a write-off of your fees for the year, or can be given as a cash grant

  • 9 business coaching sessions - these will be with a professional business coach and are designed to help you understand what your business priorities will be

  • Placement supervisor as a point of contact for any academic or welfare issues - they will help you make sure you are learning from the experience

  • Access to free workspace - York Science Park are offering free access to their new incubator, Phase One, where you will work alongside other student businesses and established startups

  • Access to networking events

  • Access to the University’s Proof of Concept scheme

Expand Enterprise

Why Expand Enterprise?

This online course will help you take the next step with your business idea. Designed to expand on the work completed during the ‘Explore’ course, this programme is intended to help students who have already completed the early phase of business development, including user research, market fit and value proposition.

You don’t have to have completed the Explore programme to take part, although we highly recommend you start there if you haven’t done so already. Find out when the next Explore course starts and register.

When you’re ready to take the next step, simply access the course at the bottom of the page. Make sure you’re signed in to your University Gsuite account to get access.

Ad-Venture

Is your business less than 3 years old?

Are you trading with other businesses?

Do you plan to grow?

Are you based in the Leeds City Region?

(Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield and York)

Yes?

Register today and save time, stress and money with fully funded (FREE TO YOU!) expert help and support to build and grow your new business

WEBINARS / MENTORING / GRANTS / FINANCE / ADVICE

Incubators & Accelerators

Summer Accelerator

Summer Accelerator

Made possible by Santander

Spend your summer vacation working on launching your business with the support of the University behind you. If accepted onto the summer accelerator, you will receive:

  • a living allowance of £1,500 to cover eight weeks solely focusing on launching your business
  • use of a workspace for 8 weeks
  • access to support from the University and five hours of specialist business coaching

You should have a business or social enterprise idea in mind and be committed to putting it into practice over the Summer vacation. The idea should be your own, although applications from two or more students will be considered, again provided that the business idea belongs jointly to the students involved. Joint applications can only receive a single package of support.

We do not expect you to fully develop a successful business in a ten week period. The Summer Accelerator is about exploring the idea to see if it might work on a longer term basis. Discovering that the idea is less viable than you first imagined is a perfectly valid outcome.

Phase One Incubator Programme

Phase One Incubator Programme

Foundations for a sustainable future

Phase One is an entrepreneurial start up space and programme supporting research spinouts, digital, creative, tech and science innovators to turn their ideas into sustainable businesses.

Opening in Summer 2019, Phase One is based at The Catalyst, at the heart of the University of York’s Campus East. It provides the time, space and support to start, grow and develop your business.

Developed in collaboration with partners from across the region, members benefit from a practical support programme of advice, workshops and mentoring.

Phase One members get personal, direct access to a range of specially selected partner organisations who will use their significant knowledge, skills and expertise to accelerate your growth potential.

Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs Accelerator

2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. To celebrate, this year we will be running the Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme, a programme of dedicated support for student and graduate start-ups across our partner universities.

Aspect Research Commercialisation (ARC) Accelerator

Are you a social scientist with innovative research ideas that could be developed into a business or social enterprise? Are you employed as an academic researcher by the University of York?

You have a unique opportunity to turn bright ideas into a business through a comprehensive entrepreneurial skills training programme and the chance to compete to win £50,000* to support your proposed venture.

The ARC Accelerator (formerly known as SUCCESS) is a first-of-its-kind opportunity specifically designed to help social science researchers to develop ideas based on their research into businesses or ventures to help people, society and the economy.

The programme is open to social sciences researchers (students are not eligible) from across the University of York.

Find support & get connected

Workspaces

York Science Park

York Science Park enables businesses to connect with world leading knowledge and expertise at the University of York. York Science Park is based at the heart of the University of York campus, and is a hub of over 100 businesses and innovators

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

Start-Up Series

Launched by Startups.co.uk, in partnership with investment promoters Worth Capital, the Start-Up Series is the UK’s largest ever seed funding competition.

Every month, it gives one startup the chance to receive an equity investment of up to £250,000, at a fair valuation which is negotiated and agreed during the latter stages of the competition.

Investment, Grants & Funding

York Venture One

York Venture One provides University of York students, recent alumni and staff with the financial resources to take a business idea from concept through to early stage investment. Designed to facilitate the development of an MVP or the gathering of evidence of market demand, Venture One is a pilot initiative offering between £5,000 to £10,000 as either advance subscription or seed funding. Awards are made on a competitive basis so please check the eligibility and desirable criteria below before applying.

YuFund

YuFund exists thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends. It gives grants to developmental and community projects run by student clubs and societies, departments and colleges.

YuFund backs projects that:

  • make opportunities equally accessible for students
  • contribute to the work of the University locally, nationally or internationally
  • contribute to student mental health or wellbeing
  • create an active creative community on campus and beyond
  • create spaces that allow students to fulfil their potential.

YuFund will typically aid projects that support the student experience through development of student-led and student support projects. In this exceptional case, funding will be available to student-led projects only, and will also be available to support operational costs.

To get backing for your project, you must submit an application by the deadline. The YuFund Disbursement Group will then consider your application and give you their decision.

Due to limited funds, YuFund cannot support every application it receives. Please make sure your application is as strong and well presented as possible. Take a look at the application guidelines, which you should read before beginning your application. We would strongly encourage that you prepare this application in a word processing document and paste it into this form.

If you have any questions, please email yufund@york.ac.uk.

Proof of Concept Fund

The Proof of Concept Fund gives you the chance to receive up to £500 to put towards working on your business idea.

The Proof of Concept Fund provides financial assistance in the early-stage development of projects that show commercial potential. Awards are made from £250 up to £500. You will also get detailed feedback on your business idea and suggestions for how to improve it.

Successful applications will have a clear idea for a commercial or social enterprise, as well as having a plan for how the funding will help test the concept.

University of Glasgow

Get connected

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

Glasgow University Entrepreneurship Society

The Glasgow University Entrepreneurship Society was founded with the aim to educate students about entrepreneurship, develop their business acumen and inspire them to pursue entrepreneurship as a career path.

Startup Grind

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 2,000,000 entrepreneurs in over 600 chapters. At Startup Grind Glasgow, we aim to support and connect founders and entrepreneurial people to the Scottish startup ecosystem.

As with every chapter…

- We believe in making friends, not contacts.

- We believe in giving, not taking.

- We believe in helping others before helping yourself.

Events run monthly throughout the year, with previous events featuring established founders and investors such as Mark Logan of Skyscanner, Chris van der Kuyl of 4JStudios and Evelyn McDonald of Scottish Edge.

If you’re keen to get involved in the Scottish entrepreneurial ecosystem (to meet startups, get involved in sponsorship or to join the team here at Startup Grind), this is the place to do it. Contact us here or at any of our social media channels.

Hope to see you at the next event.

Enactus Glasgow University

Enactus at Glasgow is a social enterprise team that uses the skills and talents of students here at the University, as well as our connections with national companies, to make a difference to the economy, community and environment here in Glasgow and further afield. If you want to make a real difference, use your skills in a way that can truly impact people’s lives, enhance your CV, and have fun along the way, then get in touch with Enactus Glasgow!

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

The Start-Up factory

Over the course of one weekend, students with a passion for business can create a real startup in a new collaborative event between the Adam Smith Business School, School of Computing Science, Glasgow University Entrepreneurship Society and the Glasgow University Technical Society.

StartUp Factory will enable participants to pitch an idea, join a team, perfect a business idea, and present to a panel of expert judges from corporate and academic backgrounds.

During the event, participants can attend workshops and presentations from professionals and consult with mentors from business, tech and design backgrounds, to help them develop and exploit their idea.

The weekend is designed to create the perfect environment to build a startup, and because the venue is available round the clock teams can work on their idea for as long as they need.

Learn more

In-Person Courses

Business StartUp Summer Workshop Programme

The Summer Start Up Workshop Programme was launched in 2016 to complement our dedicated mini- accelerator Summer Company Programme. With an ever increasing number of workshops delivered across a range of topics this is a great way to enhance your skills and develop further knowledge to support you on your start up journey. The full programme delivered for 2021 can found below by month for information.

With 26 workshops delivered virtually in the Summer of 2021, over 100 participants took part across the programme exploring a range of topics from social media to doing business online to funding/financing a business and business ideation. Delivered not just for existing businesses but also those with an idea and desire to begin their start-up journey. Feedback from participants at the end of the programme was fantastic to hear with 100% saying they would recommend the programme to others whilst 96% rated their skills and knowledge development as very good.

Information Sources

Student Enterprise Startup Support

Startup support at Student Enterprise is a service designed to help you start up and run your own business. We deliver a range of enterprising activities and education across the whole University.

Adam Smith Business School

We follow the legacy of Adam Smith

The University of Glasgow includes among its alumni, the father of economics, Adam Smith. The Adam Smith Business School is named in his honour. We aim to follow his legacy by developing enlightened, engaged and enterprising graduates, who are internationally recognised and make a positive impact on culture and society.

We help to transform organisations and careers

Our business is about creating inspiring leaders, researchers and professionals whose research and relations with industry have real impact, influencing organisations as they develop and grow globally.

We combine world class research and teaching

Our range of accredited degree programmes in Accounting & Finance, Economics and Management will help to prepare you for a promising future career and the ability to contribute to organisations at the highest level.

Student Enterprise Meet the Team

From inspired ideas to the next business start-up, the University of Glasgow Student Enteprise team is here to support students on their enterprise journeys at all stages. By providing valuable opportunities and access to a range of resources, we are here to help you develop the skills and knowledge you need to get started.

Glasgow start-up Case Studies

There are a number of startups in Glasgow University, all of whom are at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey. Some are just in the process of transforming their idea into a prototype; others are established and making their way in the world.

For more information about some of our startups see the case studies below. More will be added as interviews are completed.

Glasgow Alumni Network

At Glasgow we are proud of our alumni community of almost 250,000 graduates stretching across the globe. The University of Glasgow experience connects us all and creates a world-changing, vibrant and generous network.

Our connection is lifelong and we hope that you continue to stay in touch and benefit from the many opportunities being part of our community brings, including through events, networking and volunteering.

Our thoughts are with every member of our alumni community at this difficult time as we face the global challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic brings.

Find support

Programmes

Business Start-up Summer Workshop Programme

The Summer Start Up Workshop Programme was launched in 2016 to complement our dedicated mini- accelerator Summer Company Programme. With an ever increasing number of workshops delivered across a range of topics this is a great way to enhance your skills and develop further knowledge to support you on your start up journey. The full programme delivered for 2021 can found below by month for information.

With 26 workshops delivered virtually in the Summer of 2021, over 100 participants took part across the programme exploring a range of topics from social media to doing business online to funding/financing a business and business ideation. Delivered not just for existing businesses but also those with an idea and desire to begin their start-up journey. Feedback from participants at the end of the programme was fantastic to hear with 100% saying they would recommend the programme to others whilst 96% rated their skills and knowledge development as very good.

Corporate Law Advisory Support Programme (CLASP)

What is CLASP?

The Corporate Law Advisory Project (CLASP) is a School of Law initiative created for our Diploma students.

What does CLASP do?

The initiative supports student participants in providing advice to business start-ups created by other University of Glasgow students. All meetings are overseen by a qualified practicing solicitor.

Who benefits?

The business start-ups assisted by our students in previous years have done extremely well, winning awards and securing future funding.

Our Diploma students have gained valuable first-hand experience, working with clients and increasing their commercial awareness.

Start-up Visa Programme

The University of Glasgow has an allocation of 20 endorsements on an annual basis which allow international students to apply for a Start-up visa on completion of their studies.

These visas allow non-EEA graduates to stay in the UK for two years to develop their business ideas with a view to turning them into legitimate start-up businesses.

Santander Summer Company Programme

The Santander Summer Company Programme is aimed at students who already have a business idea or are in the early stages of start-up process and would benefit from £2500 in funding, a mentorship programme and incubation space (once we are allowed back on campus again).

Those businesses that secure a place on this programme, which runs from the beginning of June until the end of August, will also have access to our extensive Business StartUp Summer Workshop Programme, which covers all aspects of the start-up process, as well as bespoke workshops for Company Programme participants. There are 4 places available for individual students or student teams to take part in this mini accelerator programme which is now in its 6th year. This will be run as a virtual programme again this year with the option of face-to-face meet ups if allowed (based on COVID-19 guidelines).

Social Shifters Programme

The University of Glasgow is partnering with Social Shifters - empowering you to explore, start, and grow your ideas. Get FREE access to specialist digital learning resources and for those ready to take the next steps, we provide one-to-one on campus start-up advice.

Social Shifters aims to support and grow change activity in universities across the UK, because all change starts with one thing — an idea.

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovatio.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Incubators & Accelerators

Get some finances

Competitions & Awards

Santander Summer Company Programme Competition

The Santander Summer Company Programme is aimed at students who already have a business idea or are in the early stages of start-up process and would benefit from £2500 in funding, a mentorship programme and incubation space (once we are allowed back on campus again).

Those businesses that secure a place on this programme, which runs from the beginning of June until the end of August, will also have access to our extensive Business StartUp Summer Workshop Programme, which covers all aspects of the start-up process, as well as bespoke workshops for Company Programme participants. There are 4 places available for individual students or student teams to take part in this mini accelerator programme which is now in its 6th year. This will be run as a virtual programme again this year with the option of face-to-face meet ups if allowed (based on COVID-19 guidelines).

Jay Smith Innovation Award

The Jay Smith Creativity and Innovation Award was launched in 2017 through funding generously provided by Jay Smith, a local businessman, to promote entrepreneurship within the student body. The funding available for 2021 is £550 and will be awarded to a current student with a creative / innovative idea for a new product or service. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to tell us a bit about your innovative, early-stage business idea and why the funding would help you get to the next stage. This level of funding may be exactly what you need to take that next step.

The winner of this award will also be able to access the Business StartUp Summer Workshop Programme and the mentorship and bespoke workshops being offered through the Summer Company Programme. Incubation space will also be available once we are able to return to campus in line with Scottish Government guidance.

All that is required is an outline of your business idea and how the funding would help you progress your idea using the application form below.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Royal College of Art

Get connected

Groups, Forums, Networks, Hubs & Societies

InnovationRCA

InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation, helping staff, students and alumni transform compelling ideas into successful businesses.

Housed in the Clore Innovation Centre, RCA, Battersea, InnovationRCA was set-up in 2004 to support students, alumni and staff to commercialise their ideas and build successful businesses. InnovationRCA services cover Intellectual Property advice and support, as well as incubation and acceleration services that provide expert coaching and business mentoring built on InnovationRCA’s unique design-led, user-centred ethos and methodologies together with access to office and workshop facilities and funding.

InnovationRCA has been assessed by McKinsey & Co as a “world-class spinout incubator and an inspirational organisation acting as a significant driver of entrepreneurial growth, delivering impressive results” (McKinsey Internal Review for the RCA, 2017). In July 2019, InnovationRCA won the ‘Accelerator of the Year 2019’ award given by the UK Business Angels Association, in recognition of the programme’s excellence and InnovationRCA’s outstanding incubation track record.

InnovationRCA operates its own angel investor network, AngelClubRCA, and has partnered with venture capital company, Venrex Investment Management to better connect the start-ups it supports to private funding. Leveraging its established network and unique experience, InnovationRCA also runs programmes aimed at external entrepreneurs, start-ups and organisations looking to promote and support innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide.

InnovationRCA

InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation, helping staff, students and alumni transform compelling ideas into successful businesses.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

IP clinics & workshops

InnovationRCA have teamed up with IP lawyer Mark Kramer and his team at Shoosmiths LLP to offer RCA students free / confidential online consultation appointments!

Do you have a question on IP legal issues, such as the protection, exploitation or enforcement of copyright, design rights, trade marks, patents, domain names, trade secrets, confidentiality, disputes relating to your rights or questions about contracts and agreements to work with others?

Think about what you want to say / ask. Note down a brief description of the reason for your visit and any questions you wish to ask. Visuals & examples really help the lawyers to understand where you are coming from.

Learn more

Information Sources

InnovationRCA Twitter

The Royal College of Art’s centre for entrepreneurship & IP commercialisation, helping grads & staff transform compelling design-led ideas into great businesses

InnovationRCA LinkedIn

nnovationRCA was founded in 2004 ago as the Royal College of Art’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation of IP. We provide start-up incubation, acceleration and commercialisation programmes to RCA staff, alumni and students as well as to corporations looking to promote and exploit their own innovation. These programmes are built on the unique design-led entrepreneurship approach that has underpinned InnovationRCA’s success in transforming compelling ideas into successful UK businesses.

Find support

Programmes

Innovation Entrepreneurship Development Programmes

InnovationRCA helps organisations release valuable projects and establish an enduring internal culture of innovation.

These programmes are designed for companies that are looking to develop internal expertise in fostering and exploiting innovation, wherever it emerges. Focused on small multi-disciplinary teams of cross functional or global employees, InnovationRCA guides companies in effective team construction across the enterprise to achieve holistic innovation.

The programmes work best when attendees represent as many functional groups as possible from within the company, so that everyone is exposed to the innovation process and discovers the art of the possible across all areas.

InnovationRCA Patent Support Programme

Patenting guidance and financial support for RCA graduates and alumni looking to commercialise their ideas.

Provides:

  • Pre-show advice on how to avoid disclosure and what to present
  • Support in identifying what to patent, and then filing a patent through professional patent attorneys
  • Funding to cover the initial filing costs
  • Automatic shortlisting on InnovationRCA’s start-up programme, including a place on the Launchpad summer school

Graduating RCA students with commercial inventions can win patent support to protect their ideas and avoid disclosure at their graduation show. They are provided with patent funding, guidance and commercialisation support. We also welcome applications from RCA alumni.

Incubators & Accelerators

InnovationRCA Start-up Programme

InnovationRCA’s high-growth start-up incubation programme featuring our unique design-led and user-centred methodologies, and widely recognised for its impressive track record of success.

Early stage start-ups accepted into the InnovationRCA Start-up Programme receive pre-seeds funds, introduction to InnovationRCA Fund 1 Managers, membership of AngelClubRCA, business mentoring, access to workshops and office space at InnovationRCA in the Dyson Building, RCA Battersea.

InnovationRCA Incubator

InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art’s centre for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support.

Housed in the Clore Innovation Centre, RCA, Battersea, InnovationRCA was set-up in 2004 to support students, alumni and staff to commercialise their ideas and build successful businesses. InnovationRCA services cover Intellectual Property advice and support, as well as incubation and acceleration services that provide expert coaching and business mentoring built on InnovationRCA’s unique design-led, user-centred ethos and methodologies together with access to office and workshop facilities and funding.

Aspect Accelerator

Transforming Society Through Social Science Innovation.

Aspect is a growing network of organisations working together to support innovation, entrepreneurship and research commercialisation in social sciences.

Get some finances

Investment, Grants & Funding

Cranfield University

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Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship Events & Networking

We focus on the study and facilitation of entrepreneurial growth and aim to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of high growth businesses by closely linking research, education and practice. We also act as the Entrepreneurial Hub for Cranfield University working closely with the Research Innovation Office to provide entrepreneurship support to all students, faculty, and staff across campus.

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Entrepreneurship at Cranfield University Events

Welcome to the Bettany Centre of Entrepreneurship.

We focus on the study and facilitation of entrepreneurial growth and aim to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of high growth businesses by closely linking research, education and practice. We also act as the Entrepreneurial Hub for Cranfield University working closely with the Research Innovation Office to provide entrepreneurship support to all students, faculty, and staff across campus.

Entrepreneurship at Cranfield University

Our mission is to develop leaders in technology and management, and we support entrepreneurs at every step of their journey.

We empower entrepreneurs to reach their full potential by providing an epicentre for entrepreneurial activity, bringing together like-minded people and providing them with all the tools they need to bring their ideas to life.

Get connected & learn more

Regular Conferences, Series, Workshops & Events

Cranfield 50 Mentoring Network

A network of leading entrepreneurs

At Cranfield, we are extremely fortunate to have an active alumni community which supports the younger generation in a number of ways. In 2017, the 50th anniversary of Cranfield’s School of Management, the Cranfield 50 was launched. This network of leading alumni entrepreneurs was formed to encourage interaction between Cranfield’s alumni and also develop our relations, making it easier for alumni to get involved with the centre’s many activities.

In the past we have been joined by Cranfield 50 members at Start-Up Weekends, our Entrepreneurship Speaker Series and VentureDay. For an opportunity to meet individuals from this talented and varied network, keep an eye on our events calendar for more information.

The Bettany Centre Entrepreneurship Speaker Series

This is the perfect opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from successful entrepreneurs. The Bettany Centre Entrepreneurship Speaker Series gives you the chance to hear from a variety of entrepreneurs from across a range of industries.

The speakers will give you an insight in to their journey, identifying their successes and any mistakes that they may have made along their way. You will also be given the opportunity to ask questions, allowing you to delve even further in to the backstory of these well-established entrepreneurs.

Attending these events will provide you with a great chance to network with like-minded individuals who share your passion for entrepreneurship.

Cranfield VentureDay

Cranfield VentureDay is back! We’ll be welcoming the many business founders, investors and supporters who make up the Cranfield venturing network.

Bettany Learning Centre Speaker Series

This is the perfect opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from successful entrepreneurs. The Bettany Centre Entrepreneurship Speaker Series gives you the chance to hear from a variety of entrepreneurs from across a range of industries.

The speakers will give you an insight in to their journey, identifying their successes and any mistakes that they may have made along their way. You will also be given the opportunity to ask questions, allowing you to delve even further in to the backstory of these well-established entrepreneurs.

Attending these events will provide you with a great chance to network with like-minded individuals who share your passion for entrepreneurship.

Cranfield University Networking Events

We host a range of conferences, workshops, programmes and networks to provide you with the opportunity to meet with other business leaders, academics, students and industrial practitioners. Keep up with the latest thinking across management and technology and meet like-minded individuals who could benefit your business.

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In-Person Courses

Management and Entrepreneurship MSc

Our Management and Entrepreneurship MSc will teach you how to start your own business, grow a family business or innovate inside an existing organisation. Studying this entrepreneurship MSc will not only provide you with the management skills and entrepreneurial qualities, it will also offer you networking opportunities to enable you to start and run businesses effectively and imaginatively.

Our Management and Entrepreneurship MSc shares course content, including modules and other course activities, with our top-ranked Management MSc course, which is ranked 6th in the UK and 28th in the world by QS World University Rankings: Masters in Management Ranking 2022.

Information Sources

Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship

Welcome to the Bettany Centre of Entrepreneurship

We focus on the study and facilitation of entrepreneurial growth and aim to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of high growth businesses by closely linking research, education and practice. We also act as the Entrepreneurial Hub for Cranfield University working closely with the Research Innovation Office to provide entrepreneurship support to all students, faculty, and staff across campus.

Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship LinkedIn

We focus on the study and facilitation of entrepreneurial growth and aim to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of high growth businesses by closely linking research, education and practice. We also act as the Entrepreneurial Hub for Cranfield University working closely with the Research Innovation Office to provide entrepreneurship support to all students, faculty, and staff across campus.

Find support

Programmes

Start-up Weekend

Start-Up Weekends – unlocking and supporting new business ideas at Cranfield

If you are a Cranfield student, researcher, alumnus/alumna or staff member with a business idea, we are here to help you!

Our Start-Up Weekends are the perfect opportunity to work with mentors and entrepreneurs to shape your ideas.

Ready for Scale Programme

The Ready for Scale programme helps your small or medium business to take a leap on its growth trajectory and assists you to transform your business. Our 12-week Growth Plan process shows you how to critically review your business, asks challenging questions, and thoroughly interrogates what is and isn’t working.

Whether you want to transform your company from a life-style business into a fast-growth business, make sure you can survive the impact of Covid-19 and leaving the EU, or you want to take the opportunities available to grow your business to the next level, Ready for Scale will support you to achieve your goal.

Incubators & Accelerators

Cranfield Business Incubation

From the spark of a new idea to the maturity of a fully-formed company, we can offer your business the opportunity to establish and grow in a science and technology environment.

We can provide the perfect setting for your fledgling company, with advanced technology and management expertise right on your doorstep. Being in a hub of innovation on our campus will be invaluable for your business, both in its formative stages and during growth.

Cranfield Eagle Lab Incubator

Barclays has partnered with Cranfield University to support the future innovators of Bedfordshire. The space in the heart of the University campus is tailored to the aerospace and aviation technology community, drawing on the Cranfield’s aerospace heritage. With a range of support services, including access to expert mentoring and funding opportunities, we can help you scale your business. Residents will benefit from business advice and mentoring from Barclays experts and access to world-class specialists and facilities at Cranfield University.

Cranfield is one of only a few universities in the world to own and run its own airport. Its unique facilities, underpinned by its global research airport, can further help aviation start-ups as they develop and test their innovations.

COVID-19 Support

Owning the Winter

While many sectors are operating in some capacity, lots of uncertainty remains about what the winter will bring. Will schools remain open? Will there be a second wave? Will you face a local lockdown? And also, what happens when we leave the European Union on 31 December?

A lot of questions remain unanswered and unfortunately we do not have a crystal ball which allows us to predict the future. However, we can help you with strategies to take control of the uncertainty and provide you with access to thought leadership and successful experts.

We know that you may still be looking to boost sales or are seeking advice around remote working. Our ‘Owning the Winter’ campaign has been shaped by many of the common topics that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, for this reason we will focus on the following themes:

  • Strategy/Owning the Winter
  • Leadership and Organisation
  • Marketing/Sales
  • HR/Talent Management
  • The EU Exit

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Workspaces

AVIATE+

Cranfield University has been designated as a University Enterprise Zone and has been awarded £1.2 million from Research England. The funding will help to create a UK Aviation Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship cluster.

Aerospace has been identified by the UK Government as being strategically important to the economy. The cluster will support growth in the sector while expanding Cranfield’s University’s business incubation infrastructure.

Cranfield Eagle Lab Workspace

Barclays has partnered with Cranfield University to support the future innovators of Bedfordshire. The space in the heart of the University campus is tailored to the aerospace and aviation technology community, drawing on the Cranfield’s aerospace heritage. With a range of support services, including access to expert mentoring and funding opportunities, we can help you scale your business. Residents will benefit from business advice and mentoring from Barclays experts and access to world-class specialists and facilities at Cranfield University.

Cranfield is one of only a few universities in the world to own and run its own airport. Its unique facilities, underpinned by its global research airport, can further help aviation start-ups as they develop and test their innovations.

More than just a co-working space, we also run a schedule of events to educate, inspire and connect businesses within the Cranfield Eagle Lab.

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Competitions & Awards

Clean Equity Monaco 2020

CleanEquity® is a private conference, featuring up to 30 of the world’s best in class next generation sustainable technology companies.

Founded on the principle of providing exceptional sustainable and resource efficiency companies with a platform to springboard to self-sufficiency, the conference provides a collegiate atmosphere that nurtures innovation with the ultimate aim of assisting companies in achieving their goals.

The selected companies present their vision to, and network with, an invitation-only audience comprised of prominent financial, strategic, sovereign, corporate and family investors, established industry representatives, government officials, end users and international trade media.

In 2020 we opened our doors to a wider audience joining us live via our streaming partner EarthX. During the two-days conference, more than 25,000 people from around the world joined us online.

Cranfield University Johnson Matthey Agritech Partnership Programme

The Johnson Matthey Agritech Partnership Programme (JMAPP), in association with Cranfield University, is a pilot programme offering businesses the opportunity to receive a package of intensive support (technical and commercial) to accelerate the market translation of high impact innovations for the Agritech sector.

Investment, Grants & Funding

Cranfield Investor Day

The annual Cranfield Investor Day and Pitch Competition event is an opportunity for selected Entrepreneurs affiliated with Cranfield University to present their business ideas to receive feedback from a senior panel of industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs and investors.

We will hold two separate events on the same day:

  • Investor Day, intended for investment-ready businesses and
  • Pitch Competition, more suitable for promising business ideas in need of further development

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