£50,000 graphene enterprise competition now open to PhDs
Published on 6 March 13
The Eli and Britt Harari award gives you the chance to win £50,000 to develop a new graphene-related business
The Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award, in association with Professor Andre Geim, is a new prestigious award launched in February 2013 to help establish new enterprises in graphene at The University of Manchester. The £50,000 award aims to encourage the development of an entrepreneurial culture across the University’s doctoral and postdoctoral research base. Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon material, is a UK discovery and its properties make it one of the most important breakthroughs in recent memory.
The competition is co-funded by the North American Foundation for The University of Manchester, through the generous support of one of the University’s former students, Dr Eli Harari, and his wife Britt, and the UK Government’s Higher Education Innovation Fund. The award judging panel will be chaired by Professor Geim, Holder of the Langworthy Chair and Regius Professor at The University of Manchester who, together with Professor Kostya Novoselov, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for the isolation of graphene.
The 2013 competition is open to final year PhD students and Postdoctoral Research Associates at the University of Manchester. It will be awarded to the candidate who can demonstrate outstanding potential in establishing a new enterprise related to graphene and who now wishes to embark on an entrepreneurial career in innovation and commercialisation.
Applications will be judged on the strength of their business plan to develop a new graphene-related business. The award then becomes seed funding to allow the candidate to take the first steps towards realising this plan. It recognises the role that high-level, flexible early-stage financial support can play in the successful development of a business targeting the full commercialisation of a product or technology related to research in graphene.
How to apply
- All entrants must be registered as University of Manchester PhD students (final year) for the current academic year (2012-13) or currently hold a postdoctoral research associate position at the University.
- All applicants must submit an outline business plan submitting their plan to establish, manage and develop a graphene-related enterprise with the prize money.
- All entries should be no longer than 10 A4 pages and should be emailed to ivan.buckley@manchester.ac.uk by 12noon on Friday May 17th 2013 and attached as a Word file. No other formats (even PDF) will be accepted.
- Shortlisted participants will be asked to make a short formal presentation of their business plan before a panel comprising of business, financial and academic representatives.
- You can enter as an individual or as a team but the lead applicant must meet the criterion described in point 1 above.
- The cheque is made out to the lead entrant. How the money is shared out is up to you.
Further details of the award can be found at http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/or by e-mailing Ivan Buckley at ivan.buckley@manchester.ac.uk