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£100k for region's next generation of entrepreneurs

Student and academic entrepreneurs will tonight be battling for a share of £100,000 worth of cash and business support at the final of Blueprint: the North East Universities’ Business Planning Competition.

The competition, now in its third year, invites all students of the region’s five universities to submit business plans for ideas they are considering trading whilst studying or upon graduation. Last year the competition lead to over 500 students and recent graduates taking part, creating more than 80 jobs in the North East. In a first for the competition, academic staff are now eligible to enter the contest in the Science and Technology Awards.

Some of the ideas to have made it through to the final include a motorbike funeral carriage, a social enterprise for local adults with learning disabilities who want to work in the horticulture industry, a safety testing mechanism for Formula One cars, and ground-breaking stem cell applications.

To read more about the competition and this year’s Finalists in both the Business and Science & Technology Awards, please visit www.blueprintcompetition.co.uk. The winners will be announced in tomorrow’s bdaily.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .