Thirty eight of the country's top future social entrepreneurs have each been awarded up to £2,000 as winners of this year's Young Innovators Challenge, funded by Scottish Government and part of the Scotland Can Do approach.
Winners from Strathclyde include Abdallah Moh, Olga Szewczyk and Romulo Freitas; Jeremie Warner and Stephen Spiers; Kirstin Lamotte; Bethany Ripley; and Scott Kerr. Abdallah and Olga are both Strathclyde Business School graduates and, along with fellow Strathclyder Romulo (chemical engineering) they won £6,000 in total for their business idea.
The competition is aimed at encouraging young people in Scotland to get into innovation and entrepreneurship.
The winners were shortlisted from 267 team entries, each tasked with developing concepts to help tackle social, health, environmental and infrastructure challenges currently facing Scotland.
Abdallah, Olga and Romulo have come up with a GPS app which allows mobility impaired users to navigate more efficiently by recording disabled access routes which can be shared online for other people to use.
Each winner will use their award funding to develop their ideas over the summer months. During this time they will also have access to expert advice and support through workshops, and will take part in an exclusive Young Innovators Challenge winners’ residential bootcamp in Dundee. These workshops and weekends have been designed to help them progress their idea into a position where they can either pitch for additional funding or start trading as a business. Winners will be given the opportunity to return in August to pitch their ideas to judges for additional funding of up to £5,000.
Fiona Godsman, chief executive for competition organisers, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, said, "Scotland is brimming with young entrepreneurial talent and the Young Innovators Challenge has proven to be an excellent platform to channel that talent in a way that helps benefit communities, towns, cities, industries and the environment.
"We had a record number of participants this year, and each idea deserved to be recognised. We would encourage those who haven’t been successful at this stage to seek out help and persevere to move their ideas forward."
Judges this year included Josh Littlejohn, organiser of the Scottish Business Awards and creator of the Social Bite, Susan Aktemel, Director of Homes for Good and Graham Bell, chief executive of the Kibble Foundation.
On behalf of the judges, Graham Bell said, “The standard of entries was inspirational. There was both variety and depth. As a group of judges we felt it truly uplifting to see Scotland’s young people not only identify real business and social issues, but also to bring potential solutions to those problems.”