INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for its work in nurturing a new generation of university entrepreneurs.

The partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey is shortlisted in the Higher Education Enterprise Champion category of the National Enterprise Educator Awards.

Judges were impressed with SETsquared’s Researcher to Innovator programme, which helps researchers with promising ideas and projects who lack the skills and knowledge to convert them into commercial realities.

The programme, which runs over six months is aimed at the brightest and best postdoctoral researchers in any discipline, has already helped 100 people hone their ideas over the last three years. Success stories include:

• TrueInvivo, a Surrey company that has developed an innovative method of measuring radiation dosage and spread in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. The company has since gone on to secure places in SETsquared’s other entrepreneurship programmes and this summer won the Grant Thornton Entrepreneurial Excellence Award
• Inductosense, a company that has developed compact wireless sensing technology that can be embedded into structures and products for low-cost monitoring.

Simon Bond, Innovation Director for SETsquared, said: “We are truly honoured to be shortlisted for this award. Seeing the phenomenal success of the entrepreneurs we support is reward enough for us so this really is the icing on the cake.”

SETsquared will find out if it has won at the IEEC2015 Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony in Chelmsford on September 10. If the partnership does scoop the award it will add to its long list of prestigious titles, which include top university business incubator in Europe and the number two university business incubator in the world.