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 members 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 one, two or three awardees. The minimum award is £50,000. The award is administered by Strathclyde Inspire.

The Awards Panel encourages staff from all University of Strathclyde faculties to consider making an application. If your research has been published and its findings can be applied to address real-world problems and challenges, you should consider applying for this award to help translate your research from a peer-reviewed paper to a viable proposition with impact.

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: