University of Bristol wins top prize in battle for best business idea
University of Bristol wins top prize in battle for best business idea
[Posted on 24 November 2006]
The University of Bristol together with the Universities of Bath and the West of England, took part in a three-way contest to decide which of their award-winning business ideas most deserves the title Winner of Winners 2006. The competition was hosted by the University of Bath and sponsored by Knowledge West, a consortium of six local universities. Together with sponsorship from the three universities they offered a top prize of £10,000 for the brightest business idea.All three universities run individual business ideas competitions to encourage a spirit of enterprise among their students, alumni and staff. Six of the best and brightest ideas from these budding entrepreneurs competed for the top title on 22 November.
The six teams' ideas ranged from an efficient, secure alternative to home delivery for online shoppers, to a counselling and advice information portal for students in the South West. After the entrants had presented their ideas, the judging panel awarded the prize to University of Bristol entrant SensaGest Ltd. They have a unique state-of-the art nurse call system that can be operated by people with minimal hand movement. The device will be connected to a small wearable computer which will relay an alert to a pager carried by a nurse or care worker. The device will be programmable to enable easier communication and control other devices situated near the bedside.
Ian Anderson, Postgraduate in the University's department of Computer Science and Managing Director of the winning team said, "We are delighted with the prize which will enable us to accelerate the progress of our idea. Clinical trails will start in December at the Midland Centre for Spinal Cord Injuries prior to the launch of the hospital and home products in March."
Judges were extremely impressed with all six of the final entries. All had excellent ideas and could be commercially exploited. As well as the requisite passion and tenacity the judges felt there was a clear understanding of the importance of a good team, which can sometimes be more important than the product or service itself in the ability to overcome all obstacles in the pursuit of success.
The Winner of Winners competition now in its third year, celebrates the entreprise activities undertaken by Universities in the region, and encourages collaboration between them. Fern Urquhart, Director of Knowledge West said,"We are excited to support this year's Winner of Winners event. It is really important to nurture enterprising ideas at a regional level and giev them all the support and tools we can for success. There is an amazing range of ideas and talent out there which sponsors, judges and mentors really enjoy working with. We encourage those with bring ideas to come forward for the next round of individual competitions in our partner HEIs."
In 2004, the competition was won by LISTechnology Limited, from the University of the West of England, a potentially energy-saving superplastic forming technology that could change the face of manufacturing. In 2005, the winning team was Fitronics from the University of Bath, which has seen a 400% turnover and 20% increase in profitability since winning the competition.
Each of the universities has also just launched their individual competitions for 2007. For more information visit the following websites:
http://crigs.uwe.ac.uk/internet/business/thebizidea/default.asp
http://www.bris.ac.uk/research/newco/competition/
http://www.bath.ac.uk/enterprise/bp-comp/
For further information, please contact:
Sadia Haq
Research and Enterprise Development, University of Bristol
Tel: +44 (0)117 928 8676
www.bristol.ac.uk/research