What is the Grand Final?
In 2019 Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) will host its first Champion of Champions Grand Final. This will enable universities that ran an enterprise competition in the previous 12 months to enter their teams in Champion of Champions Grand Final.
As with the university level competitions, teams entering the Grand Final must comprise engineers or be multi-disciplinary teams that include at least one engineer. Individual applicants must be engineers (computer sciences and biomedical engineers included.)
Competitors have the chance to win the following prizes:
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A share of a £10,000 prize pot
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A CV package from Purple CV. This will include a tailored CV, a cover letter to introduce the candidate to prospective employers and a LinkedIn profile
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Mentoring by a Sainsbury Management Fellow for the overall winning team or individual winner
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Promotional support
Entrants are invited to present an innovative idea that solves a problem in society. Existing Engineers in Business prize winners may submit the business idea submitted to their university competition or another innovation.
Any undergraduate/graduate/alumni etc who participated in their university's business ideas competition in 2018/19 may enter the EIBF Champion of Champions Grand Final in 2019.
Entries will be judged by the following criteria:
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Originality of the idea
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How the idea addresses a need in society
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Clearly defined target audiences and the benefits of the innovation to them
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Viability of the idea and how well this is communicated (financials for the ideas are not required)
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Entrants who are not selected to go forward to the awards ceremony will receive top-line feedback on their submission (after the Grand Final Awards Presentation event).
How to Enter?
There are two stages - Video and Poster submission into the Grand Final and the Awards Presentation for the selected finalists:
Video and Poster: This is open to all the teams and individual entrants that participated in a business innovation competition, not just the university winners. Every entrant has an equal chance of winning an EIB Champion of Champions prize regardless of where they were placed within the university competitions.
Each entrant should submit a two-minute long video explaining their innovation as well as presenting this on an A2 poster. Entrants are welcome to show prototypes or images of their innovation if they exist (this is not compulsory).
The video and poster presentations will be judged and 10 finalists will be selected.
Videos and posters must be submitted via this website using a link that will be sent to you by EIBF. Videos and posters must be submitted by 31 August 2019 (by midnight). The two-minute videos and posters must be labelled as follows:
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Video - EIBVideo plus the name of the university
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Poster - EIBPoster plus the name of the university
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The poster must include the following information:
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The name of the entrant or the lead person for the team (that can be a contestant or the enterprise educator/professor).
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A contact email for the lead person.
Awards Presentation - 28 October 2019: The 10 finalists will be invited to present their innovation at the awards presentation which will be hosted at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Prince Philip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG in London.
We are delighted to announce that Lord Sainsbury of Turville, whose Gatsby Charitable Foundation, funds the Engineers in Business Competition prize fund, will be attending the Awards Presentation.
Judging
The judging panel will select 10 entries to go forward to the Awards Presentation. The judging panel is currently being compiled. It will include:
- David Falzani MBE, President, Engineers in Business Fellowship and Honorary Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nottingham Business School
- Sainsbury Management Fellows, Andrew Doe, CEO, Chief Digital Officer CDO, Startup Mentor & Advisor driving eCommerce Performance & Digital Transformation
- Kate Beresford, Head of Membership and Operation, Enterprise Educators UK and Director of Kate Beresford Associates.
- Representative from engineering institutions (to be published soon).
Keep an eye on this page for updates.
Public Voting on Finalists' Videos
The 10 finalists' videos will be displayed on this website.
The public will be able to vote for their favourite innovation, each person may cast one vote. Anyone may participate, so don’t forget to let your friends at university and your families know that they can participate too!
The votes will contribute to the scores awarded to finalists at the Awards Presentation.
Awards Presentation
The Awards Presentation will be held at a venue in London (to be confirmed) on 28 October 2019 where the finalists will present their ideas in front of the judging panel and an audience of invited guests.
Each team will have three minutes to present their innovation and answer the judges' questions. After the presentations, the judges will confer and announce the winners at the end of the event, and prize presentations made to the winners.
The following people may attend the awards presentation: Team selected to participate in the Grand Final, their classmates, university personnel, family and friends. The teams/universities must inform EIBF how many guests will be attending with the finalists by email by 1 October 2019.
The Awards Presentation event will commence with an informal drinks reception. The finalists' entry posters will be on display at the venue.
The event will be opened with a welcome by David Falzani MBE, President of Engineers in Business Fellowship.
