The Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Award for Outstanding Business Idea Research paper

The competition for the Stephen Young Outstanding Business Idea Research Paper is open to faculty of the University of Strathclyde. The competition is offered once a year and judged by a panel of senior academics across the University.  A total award of £150,000 is available to be split between one, two or three awardees. The minimum award is £50,000.

If your research has been published and its findings can be applied to address real-world problems and challenges, you should consider submitting an application. The award aims to support individuals and teams in translating their research from a peer-reviewed paper to a viable proposition with impact. Staff from across University of Strathclyde are encouraged to apply.

2024 - 25 winners

There were three awardees in 2024-2025 who each received £50,000 to support the development of their idea.

Rapisense

Dr Maggie Raykova from Civil and Environmental Engineering received an award for her proposition which develops advanced sensors to automatically detect tiny contaminants in milk and other samples. One of the biggest global health risks today is antimicrobial resistance, where bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and medicines, making infections harder to treat. Dr Raykova’s research on faster detection of antibiotic residues to catch contaminants early and thus reduce the spread of resistant bacteria, has significant implications for a range of industries. 

Dr. Raykova is a Research Fellow leading an exciting pre-spinout called Rapisense. Rapisense aims to address contamination control across dairy, agriculture, food safety and animal health. Their technology will help to reduce waste, protect the environment, and support safer, more sustainable food production.

"We are honoured to receive this Stephen Young award which has been a transformative milestone for Rapisense. The recognition of our vision and support have come at a pivotal time as we work to commercialise our technology and move closer to a viable product. This funding is enabling us to accelerate product development, strengthen industry collaborations, and run pilot trials of our technology with our dairy industry partners."

Dr Magdalena Raykova

Addressing chronic insomnia

Professor Leanne Fleming from the Department of Psychological Sciences and Health was awarded for her solution that will support individuals living with chronic insomnia. The proposition provides a cost-effective training model to improve access to in-person Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Prof. Fleming’s research is on the causes and non-pharmacological management of insomnia disorder. The research examines the interaction between insomnia and mental health and physical health. Her research has a particular focus on supporting people living with cancer to sleep well during and beyond cancer treatment.   

Prof. Fleming established the Strathclyde Sleep Centre at University of Strathclyde. Its mission is to encourage the prioritisation of sleep as a key component of health by conducting rigorous research, developing impactful treatments and shaping public awareness and policy. 

Non-destructive testing of high-value components in manufacturing

Amine Hifi from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering received an award for his solution that provides testing in the manufacturing industry. Non-destructive testing (NDT) of high-value components is commonly regarded as a bottleneck in the sector. The solution is an interactive system that provides a single platform for exploring and analysing NDT data, integrating conventional signal processing techniques with AI-driven defect detection algorithms. This enables real-time deployment and automated or semi-automated reporting, presenting results with confidence levels to help increase trust in the process.

The solution can be implemented across a variety of robotic configurations and offers a modular workflow that ranges from manual inspection, through AI-assisted operation, to full automation. This flexibility delivers faster, more accurate analyses, significant time and cost savings, and has been proven on both composite and additively manufactured materials—making it material agnostic and suited to diverse NDT inspection scenarios.

"This award will be extremely beneficial for the future of the business. It will support development of the existing demonstrator, allowing us to move closer to a market-ready product.  And it will be key in helping strengthen the business case by engaging with a commercial champion and gaining guidance and technical input from experienced software developers and consultants as the business moves towards a commercial ready solution."

Amine Hifi

2023–24 winners

Dr Ralf Bauer and Dr Peter William Tinning from Electrical & Electronical Engineering at the University were awarded £75,000 to develop affordable microscopy platforms.

Hamish Dow from Civil & Environmental Engineering was awarded an equal share of £75,000 for research into adaptive lighting for inspection of concrete structures and Dr Anthony McGarry from Biomedical Engineering received the same amount for his project to develop prosthetic limb socket design.

Hear from the 2023–24 winners in the video below:

2022–23 winners

The competition saw a wide range of highly impressive entries, with two winners selected by a panel of judges. Each winner received £75,000 to support the development of their idea.

The winners were announced at the biannual Inspire100 event held in the University's Technology & Innovation Centre (May 23).

The first of the two awards was given to Dr Momchil Vasilev, a Research Associate in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and founder of InProcess Ltd. He won for his paper on ‘inspecting high-value components at the point of manufacture.’ 

The second award was given to Professors Karen Faulds and Duncan Graham of the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry for their paper on ‘Rapid point of use detection of Listeria in chilled food manufacturing.’

 Fiona Ireland, Head of Entrepreneurship Strategy, commented:

"The support we are able to provide will help these exciting young companies to grow. We’d like to thank all of those who entered, and our judges who had a really tough time in selecting winners from a group of exceptionally strong contenders."

Hear from the 2022–23 winners in the video below: