Business Ideas Competition

Win a share of £4,000 from Edinburgh Innovations, just for telling us about your idea. 

We’ve teamed up with the Business in Engineers Fellowship again for this year’s Business Ideas Competition. This means there is an extra £3,000 in funding for any students based in the College of Science and Engineering and the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine boosting the prize fund to £4,000! 

Do you have an idea for a business, social enterprise, or freelancing venture? Submit either a 5-minute video or a short-written application, and you could secure funding to take your idea to the next level.

This competition is designed for early-stage businesses that are just starting out. At this stage, applicants will be focused on developing the product or service and actively engaging in customer discovery.

To win, your entry should demonstrate:

• A clear problem and your solution
• A compelling value proposition
• Financial sustainability
• A capable team
• Positive impact on people and the planet
• How the funding will be used to advance the business

Our full marking criteria can be found in the PDF below.

 Who can apply?

• Open to all University of Edinburgh students and alumni (two years post-graduation)
• If you’ve previously won a Business Ideas Competition, you cannot win again with the same idea. However, you may apply with a different idea, provided you have not received funding from one of these competitions in the current academic year.

Use of Funds:

To accept the funds, you must agree to spend the entire amount within 8 months of receiving it and submit a breakdown of how the money was used. The funding is strictly for business purposes and cannot be used as a living stipend.

Winners will also be required to attend at least three meetings with an Edinburgh Innovations business advisor within the 12 months following the competition.

Now closed. Will return next semester.  

The Business Ideas Competition was a great opportunity for us to kick-start and validate our startup concept. We at ROBOCEAN: Ecosystem Engineering cannot wait to use our prize money to develop our prototype and save our seagrass."

Niall McGrath - Robocean co-founder 

Winner's Announcement 

Join us to discover the winners of the competition at the Innovator Networking session on Thursday 20th March. Book now. 

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