Category / innovation

Winner announced – “Entrepreneur of the year award”

Business Engagement, innovation

Last Thursday the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) had a different audience to entertain as over 700 guests from the local business community flocked to attend the annual Dorset Business Awards hosted by the Dorset Chamber of Commerce (DCCI).

Bournemouth University once again sponsored the “Entrepreneur of the Year’’ Award with the shortlisted finalists and BU staff members Jayne Codling (RKEO) and Linda Ladle (Careers and Employability) in attendance.  This award attracts one of the highest number of entries out of the eleven categories with the judging process starting much earlier in the year . Mark Painter, Centre for Entrepreneurship Manager, who led BU’s panel of judges commented, “Competition gets tougher and tougher each year with a diverse range of applications from businesses across the region”. The finalists this year represented the digital, engineering and marine sectors.

This award category showcases entrepreneurs who have realised their vision through innovation and excellent management skills. All finalists needed to have demonstrated outstanding achievement, innovative business concept, growth and good management skills. CEO Phil Whitehurst, from Poole-based marine electronic brand Actisense was the overall winner, impressing the judges with his record of sustained growth and his continued passion and ambitions for further innovation. (Actisense also picked up the Dorset Export Award.)

Adam Greenwood founded IA Digital now Greenwood Campbell with Ian Campbell in 2009 and Calvin Samways who founded Sea-NC Engineering in 2005 were the other finalists shortlisted in this award.

Ex-BU student Georgina Hurcombe MD from Bournemouth based production company LoveLove Films also had reason to celebrate having won the “Business Engagement With Education Award”.

 

Institute of Global Health Innovation – Student Challenges Competition 2015

Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, student research

Global

The vision at Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) is to support the identification, development and widespread diffusion of healthcare innovation and in doing so to sustainably reduce global health inequalities across the globe.

The  Student Challenges Competition offers students  a key opportunity to showcase their research idea and to win prize money of up to £5,000 to develop this further. Runners-up prizes will also be awarded.

This year, it is also compulsory for all applications to be accompanied by a 2-3 minute promotional video illustrating the  project idea and how it works.

As part of the Audience Choice Award, £500 is up for grabs to shortlisted candidates for those who produce the best video.  The winners will be announced at the Dragon’s Den event with the rest of the prizes.

The competition is open to all UG & PG students based in the UK and can be on any aspect of global health innovation.

For more information click here.

Team BU shortlisted for Sports Technology Awards

innovation

photoWell done to Team BU who has been shortlisted for Sport England Sports Technology Hackathon Awards 2016.

The team developed a location based game app called ‘Nudge’ and incorporated social gamification strategies to encourage sustained physical activity adherence. We also sought strategies to help those who are already active in this age group encourage their inactive peers to participate.
The winning team will be announced at the Sports Technology Awards in April 2016 and awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.
Well done Team BU and good luck for next April!

BioStars – Business Plan Competition

Funding opportunities, innovation, student research

map of science

BioStars, a biotech business plan competition aimed at enabling the bio-entrepreneurs of tomorrow to turn their scientific ideas into commercial products!

BioStars is open to postgraduates, MBA, professionals, with a scientific background and an eye for business, who can participate as individuals or in teams. Participants can apply with already a project in mind (Open stream section) or can collaborate with our partners on outlined high impact projects (Structured stream section). After the Kick-off meeting on the 14th of November, there will be two workshops with senior mentors (among our partners: Astra Zeneca, OBN, Stevenage BioScience Catalyst, Imperial Innovations, ISIS Innovation, CrowdCube, to mention some).

The final prize for the winners are 30,000£+ funding, facilitated lab & office spaces, 4D mentoring, waiving CrowdCube legal and administrative fees, as well as free admission to the BioTrinity 2016 conference.

More details about the programme can be found at: http://www.oxfordbiotech.org/biostars-about/

Key dates:
14th November 2015 – Kick-start workshop (Said Business School, Oxford-Eventbrite tickets)
29th November 2015 – Application deadline
7th December 2015 – Notification of Finalists
12th December 2015 – Mentoring Workshop I
16th January 2016 – Mentoring Workshop II
19th March 2016: Grand Finale

The applications are open until the 29th of November!

For any question don’t hesitate to get in touch with Vinton Cheng (OB Biostars Project Manager) -vinton.cheng@oxfordbiotech.org!

TetraGrip: A functional electrical stimulation (FES) device for restoring hand and arm functions in people with spinal cord injuries

innovation, PG research

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.TetraGrip

 

Speaker: Lalitha Venugopalan

 

Lalitha is a Bournemouth University Creative Technology postgraduate student researching for a PhD in Biomedical Engineering based at the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

 

Title:   TetraGrip: A functional electrical stimulation (FES) device for restoring hand and arm functions in people with spinal cord injuries

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 18th November 2015

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

TetraGrip is a four channel upper limb FES device for restoring the hand and arm functions on people with C5-C7 tetraplegia. This device uses an inertial measurement sensor (IMU) for detecting the shoulder elevation/depression. The signal from the IMU is used for controlling the functions of the stimulator and for adjusting the grasp strength.

 

The stimulator is programmed to operate in the following modes: exercise, key grip and palmar grasp. Key grip mode (fig 1) is used to grasp smaller objects like a pen or a fork, whereas the palmar grasp (fig 2) is used to grasp larger objects like a glass. The exercise mode is used to strengthen the forearm muscles.

Grip_Grasp

 The system will be clinically tried on ten able bodied volunteers to evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility. If the results from this study are found to be satisfactory, then the device will be clinically tried on tetraplegic volunteers for answering the following questions:

  • Is possible for a person with tetraplegia to generate the desired input signal to control the operation of the device?
  • Does the system improve the hand and arm functions of the user?
  • Is the system easy to use for people with tetraplegia?

 

We hope to see you there.

BU featured by Kidney Research Charity

innovation

Bournemouth’s biomedical research features in this season’s Kidney Research UK ‘Update’ magazine (page 13). We share  this issue with Lauren Laverne (sort of)!

KRUK is one of Britain’s leading kidney research charities and has awarded us an Innovation Award to identify genes that underpin the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in diabetes. The innovative part of the research is that it uses the fruit fly Drosophila – a novel tool in the research armoury that has helped us understand the genetic basis of human development and behaviour as well as cardiovascular disease. Research at Bournemouth will use unique genetic tools to establish how insulin signalling maintains the expression of evolutionarily conserved genes that regulate kidney function in both flies and humans. This simple model organism has enormous power to help us identify new pathways of clinical significance to CKD – a condition that affects and kills thousands of people every year in the UK.

If you are keen to learn more about the research – email me at phartley@bournemouth.ac.uk

Knowledge exchange funding delivers £9.70 for every pound invested

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Training

Innovate 2011v4

 

New research shows that HEFCE funding for university knowledge exchange (KE) activity delivers significant and increasing return for public investment. The return on investment from £1 of Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)  is currently estimated at £9.70 in benefits for the economy and society, and may deliver even higher returns in future.

These results reflect the way universities overall are gaining greater expertise in KE, using HEIF more effectively and developing stronger partnerships, particularly with businesses. The research studies demonstrate the range and breadth of KE activity, and the significant benefits it brings to the economy and society.

The research studies describe positive feedback from businesses and social and community groups working with universities, on the benefits they have received from KE activities. Businesses feel that universities have become much more willing to engage and that higher education KE delivers value for money.

If you want to find out more about how you can start to develop relationships with business or build on existing networks, why not register to attend a free training session being held at the university on Thursday 19 November. This will include internal and external speakers who share their experiences either as a business or as an academic.

For more information and to book your place click here.

Read the full article on the HEFCE website.

EU funding call now open!

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

EU heart

EU funding opportunity – are you working with SMEs?
Open call to SMEs and new entrants for industrial experiments Digital Agenda for Europe.  The call is now open (28 October 2015) and the closing date is 3 December 2015.  This call aims to initiate new business and innovation opportunities between SMEs and new entrants, major cyber physical system-platform providers, and competence centres. The maximum European Commission contribution for industrial experiments per applicant is €150,000. The funding rate is 70 per cent. The maximum duration of industrial experiment is 18 months.
For more information: https://www.eurocps.org/innovators-projects/open-calls/

SMART awards – Support for innovative SMEs

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

InnovateUK_LogoA_Interim_RGBx320govuk[1]
SMART  is a grant scheme which offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and services could emerge.
The scheme supports SMEs carrying out R&D which offers potentially significant rewards and that could stimulate UK economic growth.
Three types of grant are available:
  • Proof of market
  • Proof of concept
  • Development of prototype.
Any UK SME undertaking research and development may apply; applications are accepted on a rolling basis for assessment by independent experts.
 This call closes on 26 November 2015 at 12.00.

KTP Surgery this Friday!

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

The Innovate UK KTP Advisor for our region will be on campus this Friday from 10am-12pm.

Each appointment will be 20 minutes long.

If you would like to make an appointment to talk through any KTP ideas/potential projects or existing KTP, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk 

If you miss this Surgery, the next one will be on Friday 20th November from 10am-12pm.

KTP@40-block-logo

Innovate UK 2015

Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Innovate 2011v4
Innovate 2015 is a two day global spotlight on innovation. You will be able to meet inventive and creative companies, explore innovative ideas, discover new export opportunities and hear from original thinkers . It’s the one event that brings together the research base, business, UK and international investors,international buyers from overseas markets and government organisations, to help fund and support innovative ideas.
  • Day 1 will focus on the wide range of funding and support opportunities available and help in making valuable connections for UK businesses to grow on a global scale.
  • Day 2 will focus on the innovation capabilities of the UK, the vast array of regional funding opportunities and support on offer and help with making the right connections for UK businesses to succeed and grow.

Innovate UK is taking place on 9 and 10 November in central London.

Click here for more information including registration.

Are you working in knowledge exchange, knowledge tansfer and/or enterprise ?

Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

PraxisUnico

Bournemouth University is a member of PraxisUnico. This membership is for the whole organisation – colleagues across the University will find it helpful to sign up to receive the  mailing list to have the NewsUpdate sent to your inbox  (news and information from across the sector, distributed every month to over 5000 individuals around the world). Other information channels include the  website, Blog and Twitter feeds of interest.

PraxisUnico is responsible for the range of activities which facilitate the commercialisation of university, public sector and charity based research.  The PraxisUnico website acts to signpost information relating to UK KT activity, expertise, success and impact – it gives Members a platform to promote to a range of stakeholders including government, industry, funders and overseas organisations – all of whom are regular visitors to the PraxisUnico website (and recipients of  wider communications) as a valued information source.

As a member organisation BU can advertise items on  the  website free of charge – a great way to share latest news, achievements and job opportunities!  Relevant content is also included in the  NewsUpdate emails.  Please send your content to website@praxisunico.org.uk.  The website also features various a range of practical tools and resources for those working within the commercialisation profession, key resources are restricted to members only.

The annual conference will take place in Stratford-upon-Avon, 15-17 June, registration will open in the New Year.

Individuals from BU  can also get involved as a volunteer by joining committees, contributing to workshops or delivering training – if this is of interest please let me know jcodling@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Creative, Digital, Design – October briefing now live !

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

 

theme - creative-digital

This is a monthly publication that provides a digest of useful information about funding, financing, support and events to assist creative, digital and design businesses with their innovation and growth strategies.

You can sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox or alternatively follow the Knowledge Transfer Network group on social media.

This is a great way to get a quick heads up on what is happening in these sectors with links to further information.

Click here for more information.

 

 

Latest funding programmes: innovation in urban spaces, IoT security, quantified self and more

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

knowledge_transfer_networks

Check out the latest funding opportuntities, events and news within these sectors and more.

Knowledge Transfer Networks have been set up to connect people. Aiming to speed up innovation , solve problems and find markets for new ideas.

Established to foster better collaboration between science, creativity and business, KTN has specialist teams covering all sectors of the economy – from defence and aerospace to the creative industries, the built environment to biotechnology and robotics. KTN has helped thousands of businesses secure funding to drive innovation. And we support them through their business cycle to see that investment through to success.

Why not sign up to receive information relevant to your area of interest and research.

Check out the website for more information. 

Team BU develop game based app in just 24 hours

innovation, PG research

photoWell done Team BU (Chi Zhang, Erika Borkoles, Sarah Collard, Gary Head, Barry Squires and Clare Farrance) for taking part in the Sport England hackathon* last weekend. We had just 24 hours to develop our concept and build a prototype app to help 18-25 year olds become more physically active.

We developed a location based game app called ‘Nudge’ and incorporated social gamification strategies to encourage sustained physical activity adherence. We also sought strategies to help those who are already active in this age group encourage their inactive peers to participate.

The hackathon was a great experience and an excellent opportunity to collaborate across BU faculties and services.

A special mention needs to go to Chi who programmed through the night to make sure we had a working prototype. Hiring an experienced flutter developer can save you a lot of time and money and enable developers to solve complex problems at the last minute.

The winning team will be announced at the Sports Technology Awards in April 2016 and awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.

Well done Team BU and fingers crossed for next April!

 

* A hackathon is a portmanteau of the words “hack” and “marathon”, where “hack” is used in the sense of exploratory programming.