UCL Announces Fifth Annual Enterprise Awards

UCL has announced its Awards for Enterprise to recognize the achievements of students, graduates and academic staff to furthering enterprise and entrepreneurship on campus. In their fifth year, the Awards celebrate the exciting new business ideas of student and graduate entrepreneurs - ranging from HelpYouApply, to streamline the process for students applying to summer internships, to Old Bond, offering animated ads on the wheels of bikes - with the announcement of £100,000 in start-up funding to take their business ideas to the next level. These Bright Ideas Awards, first established in 2008, are designed to support the development of new businesses emerging from UCL. A fund of £50,000 is available to businesses led by UCL students from any department; of that £25,000 is available for businesses led by undergraduate students and £25,000 is available for businesses led by post-graduate and alumni students. New for the 2012 Bright Ideas Awards is an additional £50,000 loan pot for awards to members of the MSc Technology Entrepreneurship course and for graduates from the last eighteen months who've started businesses on graduation. The successful applicants had to supply a full business plan for their idea, including specific details of how the Bright Ideas funds would be used to finance the business development, and benefited from the input of UCL Student Business Advisor Lillian Shapiro in honing their plans. Those chosen were done so because it was felt they would benefit most from the money in terms of expanding their businesses.