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Calling the graphene entrepreneurs of the future

03 May 2013

Time is running out for budding graphene entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas for the chance to win a £50,000 award.

graphene cones thinker

The Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award, in association with Professor Andre Geim, is intended to help establish new graphene enterprises at the University.

The £50,000 prize 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 game-changing UK discovery and its properties make it one of the most important breakthroughs in recent memory.

Students can enter as an individual or as a team, and the winners will receive seed funding to allow the candidate to take the first steps towards realising their idea. 

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 deadline for the 2013 competition is 12noon on Friday May 17th. It 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.

All applicants must submit an outline business plan submitting their plan to establish, manage and develop a graphene-related enterprise with the prize money. Entries should be no longer than 10 A4 pages 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.