Bright SCIdea Challenge 2023 offers STEM students free global business training
Registration for £5K prize now open
Budding entrepreneurs with scientific business ideas that could benefit society could turn them into reality by entering the 2023 SCI (Society of Chemical Industry) Bright SCIdea Challenge. This international competition provides training and mentoring and gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to win funding to help launch their business.
Now in its fifth year, this successful competition has helped launch new businesses as well as support starts up in their early stages. Previous winners include Sphera, who have developed a new form of sustainable concrete and CardiaTec, developing technology to address the global killer cardiovascular disease.
Bright SCIdea is now accepting expressions of interest from teams of STEM university students (both undergraduate and postgraduate). All applicants will benefit from training by experienced entrepreneurs and funders before submitting their business plan. Shortlisted teams will pitch their business idea in front of a panel of industry experts and the prize winners will receive a cash prize of £5,000 at the final in March 2023.
During and after the event teams will gain access to SCI’s global network of innovators to support them as they progress their businesses.
Raphael Peralta, CEO and Co-Founder of team CardiaTec said:
“The Bright SCIdea Challenge is an opportunity to test the strength of your business ideas amongst a network of incredibly well experienced scientists who are seasoned in translating scientific innovations into industry – this allows you to continually refine your approach and deliver a business which is truly innovative and tackling an industry need.”
Following their Bright SCIdea win in March this year, CardiaTec went on to raise £1.4 million in a pre-Seed round of funding.
Sharon Todd, SCI CEO, explained that:
“Training, developing and mentoring the next generation of scientific entrepreneurs is critical to delivering complex new science required to address climate change and tackle global health inequality. These businesses are the most challenging and require significant cash over long periods of time to produce successful income streams, making them quite different from tech start ups. Working at the interface of science and business, SCI is uniquely placed to support this crucial group of innovators as our community. The contest helps nurture the STEM entrepreneurs and ground-breaking innovations of the future to address such challenges.”
Entrants will be able to network with industry and the SCI global innovation hub to further their careers and business planning. World class entries call for world class judges and these will include Victor Christou, former CEO, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, Founder, Genius Foods and Chair, Scotland Food and Drink and Robin Harrison, VP, Platform and Technology Innovation, Synthomer.
The deadline for applicants is 1 November 2022. Teams can register their interest via the website or directly via the form here and will be invited to the online business training due to take place in November.
The registration form requirements include a team name (if you have one already), university name and department, summary of your idea and how this will benefit society (if teams have this information already). Teams unsure about applying should register as soon as possible to ensure they receive regular updates.
Please contact BrightSCIdea@soci.org with any questions. A summary of the 2022 event final can be found on the news section of our website and further information about the competition can be found here.
ENDS
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