Fourteen projects from the University of Strathclyde, just over 10% of the total, have been selected for this year’s cohort of the Converge academic entrepreneurship programme.
The projects are in a broad range of disciplines, including concussion management, detection of listeria and wearable technology for neurodivergent people.
Most applications
They are among 125 chosen from more than 300 applications, the most in Converge’s 14-year history, and will be competing for a share of a prize fund worth more than £400,000. Participants will receive business training to develop their entrepreneurial skills, with finalists progressing to the Converge Awards in October.
There is a trend in the cohort towards purpose-driven innovation, with participants striving to improve the lives of people with disabilities, develop sustainable energy solutions and revolutionise the future of healthcare. This ambition to drive meaningful change strongly underscores Converge’s mission to exploit the power for academic research to solve critical global challenges.
Meryl Levington, Strathclyde’s Director of Innovation and Industry Engagement, said:
It is a pleasure to see Strathclyde so well represented in this year’s Converge cohort. A culture of entrepreneurship is at the heart of the University’s strategy and this strong performance is a testament to the success of this approach.
The Strathclyde projects in the cohort are:
- Entropyst (Arash Badakhsh, CPE)
- Natquest (Salisu Uba, DMEM graduate)
- RBT (Dr Hayleigh May, Pure and Applied Chemistry)
- Rapisense (Magdalena Raykova, CEE)
- Marked (Garance Locatelli, Business School)
- Neuroadapt (Daniel Brown, DMEM)
- 7 Technologies (Faheem Abdusathar, graduate)
- Blockeyfi (Taneem UR Rehman, Computer and Information Sciences graduate)
- Brain Loop (BLOOP) (Alexandros Christou, Business School)
- Cykelworx Design (Jonah Davies-Jones, DMEM)
- Finwise School (Rakshit Jain, Accounting and Finance graduate)
- NetaNode (Ineta Joksaite, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation)
- Scotia Biotech (Adam Foulis, Pure and Applied Chemistry graduate)
- sparknarrative; Name: Karen Gateson, MBA graduate).
Entrepreneurship support
Many of the companies have received support from Strathclyde Inspire, which supports and encourages entrepreneurship in all its forms at the University of Strathclyde, offering entrepreneurial mindset development opportunities and startup support to students, staff and alumni.
Converge Executive Director Adam Kosterka said: “It’s a great privilege to welcome such an exceptionally talented group of aspiring entrepreneurs to our programme. Their innovations cut across numerous fields, offering solutions with the potential to not just boost our economy but to transform people’s lives.”