The overall winners of Enterprise Pathway, Strathclyde's flagship entrepreneurial training and development programme have been unveiled after a ‘Dragons' Den' style pitching event.
‘Fuil', a team of Science, Engineering and Business undergraduates, masters and PhD students, scooped the top prize with their concept of a web-based platform to drive the public to donate blood and receive rewards in return.
The business would increase the opportunity for higher numbers of blood donation and would uniquely offer paid memberships to researchers and the private health sector to give them access to blood at discounted prices for use in research development.
The top team – whose name is Gaelic for blood - received £1,000 and will have the opportunity to pick the business brains of one of Scotland's top entrepreneurs at a lunch with Sir Tom Hunter, who is also a member of the Strathclyde Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs. One of the team members is Manju Ramamurthynagar who is studying the full time MBA.
The runner-ups H2Orbit, also a team of undergraduates, masters and PhD students from Science, Engineering and Business, received £500.
The teams' business concept is a web based platform which uses hyper-spectral imaging from satellites to identify water leaks in real time, for water utility companies.
Twenty four teams started the process, with only six shortlisted to work with experienced mentors over a 10 day period.
The mentors were Sue Kee, Business Development Manager at the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), Nick Cousins, a former Chief Product Owner (Financial Planning) at Barclays and Craig Johnston, Industry Director at CMAC, who mentored the winning team.
The final, held at Glasgow's Corinthian Club, was an opportunity for the shortlisted teams to present their ideas as viable business opportunities through a five minute business presentation.
The winners were voted for electronically by an audience of alumni entrepreneurs, industry partners and the local business community.
Winning team member and MBA student Manju said, "Enterprise Pathway personally for me was about relating with people and reflecting on my learnings, realising the fact that time is always limited. Coming up with an idea, believing in it, planning its execution strategies and pitching that with passion in front of industry leaders - it's a whole start-up journey in a nutshell.
"Overall, it was a wonderful experience and excellent opportunity to meet new people, to learn from each other and believe in each other. At the end, I felt believing in oneself and your team members was a key differentiator."
Caitlin Stewart, a PhD student also from the winning team said, "I personally wasn't motivated by the prize money - I genuinely just wanted the experience to present to industry and get that real life entrepreneur experience.
"I honestly can't believe we won and I can't wait to meet Sir Tom – his life experience is so vast and I think it'll be so interesting to meet him.
"I would 100 per cent recommend this to other engineering students - it taught me how to put into practice all that I had learned in the engineering faculty."
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, who attended the event, said, "Enterprise and entrepreneurship have never been more important – it's imperative to job creation and economic growth and part of our University's DNA and there is no better example of Strathclyde's entrepreneurial spirit than Enterprise Pathway.
"More than half of participants are international students, which just goes to show the added value this programme offers as an extracurricular activity - it highlights the inclusive environment Strathclyde offers as a leading international technological university."
All the teams who presented began their Pathway journey with limited experience in the start-up process and only came up with their unique ideas four weeks before the final.
The programme, which is also supported by Santander Universities, aims to enhance employability, as well as build knowledge and confidence of the business start-up process through practical application.
Candidates don't need to have a business background or knowledge to take part and can come from all levels of study and all faculties.
The next intake of the Enterprise Pathway programme will be during Freshers' Week in September.
Programme Manager Eleanor Mackay, said, "In an increasingly disrupted world of work where companies are continuously innovating and re-inventing themselves, the enterprise skills gained through Pathway can support graduate success by developing resilience and an ability to manage uncertainty."