Ingenuity19: Ideas to Transform our Future

May 20, 2019, by The Ingenuity Lab

The next generation of innovators leave their mark on the Midlands

We have now reached the end of what has been a pivotal year for Ingenuity.

The Ingenuity19 process began with over 700 applications from young innovators from across the region, and ended the programme awarding £150,000 of funding to 18 brilliant new enterprises.

Ingenuity19’s aim was to stimulate minds and assist in the creation of sustainable business solutions to build a stronger and fairer UK economy and society. We are confident the businesses that have received funding to develop their ideas can go along way in helping to achieve this vision.

How we got here…

Since its inception four years ago, Ingenuity has attracted over 1,500 participants and awarded over £450,000 in funding for enterprising ideas.

With the help of Experian, this year it was opened up to the public to fulfil our ambitions of attracting new voices, perspectives and ideas from all parts of our diverse society. We engaged with over 30 community partners, 8 universities, and worked with more than 450 innovators to collaborate and enable social and commercial enterprise creation.

The Ingenuity19 Summits

We kicked off Ingenuity19 in February with the Future Communities Summit and the Future Technology Summit.

The Future Communities Summit offered an understanding of the experience of poverty in Nottingham and other UK cities. It explored the barriers that exist, before focusing on how to develop sustainable social enterprise. Speakers included experts from Switch-Up, UnLtd, Big Issue, Good Things Foundation, Nottingham City Council and Experian.

The Future Technology Summit provided a macro view from international experts on where tech is, and where it is going. Google talked innovation, before the essentials of AI and the psychology of tech design was covered. Market insights from Experian’s Data Lab were presented before a look ahead to what technology could become and its effect on society. Thank you to Google, Filament AI, Goldsmiths University, Experian, De Monfort University, Innovate UK and UoN’s very own Prof. Steve Benford for providing the brilliant content for the weekend!

Develop Programme

We also took our participants through the 6-week Develop skills programme where they gained the tools to turn ideas into costed business plans. Based on the Institute’s 20 years of innovation an entrepreneurship education, seminars, keynotes, specialist Q&As, and a library of resources resulted in 215 aspiring innovators submitting their entries to the Ingenuity Competition.

The Competition

Following assessment from independent judges, the top 41 ideas were shortlisted, and teams were invited to two weeks of intensive pitching for their part of the £150,000 prize fund.

For many, this was their first time pitching in front of a panel, and it was great to see the encouragement judges such as Julie Doleman (Global MD of Consumer Expansion, Experian), Candida Brudenell (Assistant CEO, Nottingham City Council) and Lars Hagelmann (Head of Fund Operations, Big Issue Invest) gave to our fantastic finalists.

The winners

Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Scholarship: Sustainable Water
Experian Entrepreneur of the Year: ExpHand Prosthetics
Experian Commercial Potential Prize: Proodle and Equinov
Experian Social Impact Prize: Seedify and Nottingham Arimathea Trust
Smallwood Trust Innovation Prize: Teen Behaviour and idooa
People’s Choice Award: ExpHand Prosthetics
Santander Enterprise Awards: Sustainable Water, Proodle, Equinov, Major Oak Education, Seedify, Hotels that Help, Witty Muse, MindMap, STEM Connect, Mita AI, Urban Verti Farms and Follow the Orient
The Brenda Dean Ingenuity Scholarships: Sustainable Water, ExpHand Prosthetics and Nottingham Arimathea Trust
Witty Scholars Award: Junelle Ayettey and Kathryn Moore
Research-Related Enterprise Award: Teen-Behaviour
Sainsbury Management Fellows (Engineers in Business) Award: Proodle, ExpHand Prosthetics and Sustainable Water
Shakespeare Martineau Award: Seedify and Equinov
BDO Award: ExpHand Prosthetics and Seedify

We have attached the elevator pitches and asks of all the Ingenuity19 Top 41 to this post. If there are any ideas you could add value to, please get in touch at ingenuity@nottingham.ac.uk!

Looking ahead

We are now turning our attention to how we can help the winners of Ingenuity19 implement their ideas and connect them with relevant elevators to help them achieve impact. We are also exploring ideas for Ingenuity20, and in particular how we can strengthen our community and corporate partnerships further.

If you would like to join us on this journey, get in touch with us at ingenuity@nottingham.ac.uk.

Appendix

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