United Kingdom
October 26, 2015
The winning University of Liverpool team with the judges from their stream. - Copyright: Biotechnology YES
More than 80 early-career researchers from around the country took part in the Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) regional workshop in Manchester on October 21-23rd.
Biotechnology YES is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of bioscience ideas among early career researchers. Teams prepare a business plan presentation for a hypothetical bioscience start-up company seeking equity investment.
For two days 17 teams went through an intensive coaching process from expert mentors in areas such as intellectual property, finance and marketing to develop their business plans before pitching to an expert panel of judges on the third and final day.
Two teams from the workshop progressed to the final, from the University of Liverpool and from Newcastle University.
They will join teams from the other Biotechnology YES 2015 workshops at the final on December 10 in London, where they will compete for a first prize worth £10,000, including the opportunity to present their business plan to the Rice Business Plan Competition in Texas, USA.
Emma Ormandy from the winning University of Liverpool team, said: “It was a really good experience; I think we’ve learnt loads. It’s been quite a steep learning curve for us, none of us had any business experience whatsoever but the mentors helped us learn everything really quickly and pull together a presentation and business plan in quite a short time.
“We’ve got our minds ticking for what we’re going to do for London now. We’re definitely excited, there’s lots to plan but we’re very much looking forward to it.”
Judge Linda Magee, Chief Operating Officer of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, said: “The teams were all excellent this year and what we’ve noticed is that they cover the span of the business proposition very well. We’ve had a very diverse range of businesses put forward so that’s really exciting.”
Biotechnology YES, now in its 20th year, is organised jointly by The University of Nottingham’s Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Find out more about Biotechnology YES at www.biotechnologyyes.co.uk
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