Business competitions
Reflecting the entrepreneurial spirit that runs through Nottingham University Business School, we encourage and support our students to develop their business ideas through a number of programmes and activities.
Ingenuity Programme
The Ingenuity Programme was established in 2016, to develop the quality and impact of business ideas created by our students and graduates. The programme is delivered via an online insight and learning platform, Challenge Summits and a national business plan competition with significant investment and support.
Ingenuity focusses on using business for impact and is seeking to create diverse networks across the UK. It brings together industry and academia as well as public and third sector organisations to provide support and create investment for business start-ups.
Ingenuity is looking for groups, individuals, and organisations who are ready for the challenge of making industry more impactful and creating new enterprises that will add value to all of our lives.
Ingenuity Programme
Young Entrepreneurs Scheme
YES is an innovative global competition developed to raise awareness among postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers of how ideas from science and engineering can be commercialised. YES comprises of residential workshops that are run over three days. Those taking part work in teams to prepare a business plan for a company based on a hypothetical but plausible idea, informed by real markets and financial data.
Now in its 25th year, YES is organised in partnership with the Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI), Association of Science Technology and Innovation (ASTI), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) and Syngenta.
Young Entrepreneurs Scheme
Enactus
Enactus Nottingham is our championship, multi award-winning team of student entrepreneurs. The Enactus Nottingham team is made up of students from across the university, using the power of business to transform the lives of people in need.
Nottingham University Business School staff mentor and support the team, who won the 2020 UK National Championship for the second year running and represented the UK at the Enactus World Cup.
In 2020, the team won a Ford Fund Education Covid-19 College Challenge prize.
Enactus Nottingham
We are very proud of the Enactus Nottingham team - they were able to adapt an already valuable social enterprise to order to respond quickly to the needs of vulnerable people in the community at this difficult time, and help provide some support. It is fabulous that this initiative has also been recognised by the international Ford Fund Education Covid-19 College Challenge prize.
Since 2016, the Ingenuity Programme has enabled over 2,000 students and alumni to develop their entrepreneurial ideas with over £500K invested in business start-ups.
Find out how FoodPrint - a project set up and run by Enactus Nottingham - is making a difference to Nottingham's communities.
