Competition University of St Andrews

The 2017 shortlist of academic entrepreneurs for Scotland’s leading company creation competition has been announced today.

The judging process has shortlisted 25 nominees across the competition’s three award categories:

• Converge Challenge: for those with an established idea – 10 shortlisted
• KickStart: for early stage ideas  – 10 shortlisted
• Social Enterprise: for ideas that will have a positive impact on social and environmental issues  – 5 shortlisted

The shortlisted nominees represent 12 Scottish universities from across the country and 44% of this year’s finalists are female highlighting increased female participation year on year

Innovative diabetes management, food waste digester & swimming aid products are amongst the companies vying for top entrepreneurial award

Converge Challenge 2017, Scotland’s leading company creation competition and entrepreneurial development programme for staff, students, and recent graduates of Scottish Universities and Research Institutes have revealed this year’s top 60 ‘Converge Challengers’. And there has been a leap in the number of female finalists which now account for 43% of the Challengers.

DELIGHT AS UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE START-UP BUSINESS SCOOPS £60K CONVERGE PRIZE

A start-up business from the University of Strathclyde has beaten off strong competition from five other finalists in the 2014 Converge Challenge, a prestigious national contest which champions enterprise and entrepreneurial innovation from within Scotland's academic community.

Six academics from five Scottish universities have made it through to the final of the Converge Challenge - a competition open to students and staff of any Scottish university, giving them a chance to develop the commercial potential of their inventions.

The finalists this year are medical device company Ultravizion from the University of Dundee; cryogenics instrumentation company, Razorbill Instruments from the University of St Andrews and a new system for automated sports performance tracking, Shot Scope Technologies, which hails from the University of Edinburgh, whilst Heriot-Watt University makes it a Capital ‘double’ with DiverSense Ltd that offers a sensor system for composition analysis and quality control in three primary markets: food, oil & gas and chemical industries.