Share:
We are delighted to announce the finalists of our 2017 Postdoc Business Plan Competition.
It has been another year of high calibre submissions. As a result, the judges elected to send six business plans through to the final round. The postdoctoral researchers, and their affiliations, are:
Davor Copic with project NextGen Heat Pipes (Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering)
James T Griffiths with project Solaware (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy)
Carin Ingemarsdotter with project Spliceor Therapeutics (Department of Medicine)
Hanbin Ma with project ACXEL (Department of Engineering)
Akshay Rao with project Slate2Learn (Department of Physics)
Chris Williamson with project Flexypix (Electrical Engineering Division, Department of Engineering)
The judges would also like to give a highly commended certificate to the following two semi-finalists:
Zuzanna Brzosko with project Sixfold (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience)
Chao Gao with project RoboX (Department of Computer Science and Technology)
The grand finale will be held on Thursday 2 November when the finalists will pitch their business plans in front of an audience of experts in spin-out investment. If you’re a postdoc and would like to attend, you can register for the event here.
The judges include Anne Dobrée, Head of Seed Funds of Cambridge Enterprise, Tom Simmons, president of the Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge, Andrew Williamson, Investment Director at Cambridge Innovation Capital and Barbara Domayne-Hayman, Member of the Cambridge Enterprise Investment Committee.
The finalists’ pitches will be judged on a number of criteria, including each business’s competitive position, the potential for new business creation and the teams’ collective skill set.
The event is sponsored by Marks and Clerk, Parkwalk Advisors, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Barclays Eagle Labs.
Up to three prizes in total will be awarded.
- 1st prize: £20,000 investment sponsored by Cambridge Enterprise, Eagle Labs memberships for up to four team members for three months and a pitching slot at a Cambridge Enterprise Venture Partners Dinner
- 2nd prize: £10,000 investment sponsored by Cambridge Enterprise
- 3rd prize: £5,000 cash sponsored by Cambridge Innovation Capital and Parkwalk Advisors
If you entered but didn’t make it through to the finals, we hope you have learned from your mentors and that the process has helped you in your quest for commercialisation.
Congratulations to all the finalists. We’ll see you at the grand finale. Good luck!
Image: Postdoc Business Plan finalists