UMIP INITIATIVES
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IQuBit and Student Enterprise Update…
The New Year has brought a
fresh cohort of ambitious
student entrepreneurs through
IQuBit's doors. Alongside
Manchester Entrepreneurs we
have welcomed
UniPreneur
candidates Mike Mockford (Ad-
dictive) and Patrick Birch (Study
Jam), Social Entrepreneur Haider
Khokhar (Head4 Knowledge)
and University of Manchester
graduate Gareth Wilson
(Brumbrumbeepbeep).
Mike came through as one of
our successful UniPreneur
candidates demonstrating his
flair for advertising and
entrepreneurialism by
developing an innovative
platform to provide qualitative
data to advertising agencies
through mobile gamification.
Patrick was also a successful
Unipreneur candidate alongside
teammates Karlis Zilmanis and
Egidijus Bertulis to develop
Study Jam, an online platform
where friends compete against
each other in their chosen
academic subject.
Haider also claimed a place on
the programme following his
great success as one of UMIP's
flourishing
Social Enterprise
Award winners. Haider
continues to work on
Head4Knowledge, an
Educational Technology Social
Enterprise that helps children
aged 5-14 master the basics of
computer programming in a fun,
easy and engaging way. This is
incorporated in a gaming
environment to 'headfake' kids
into understanding the
elementary concepts of
programming by enjoying
interactive games.
Finally, Gareth is the most recent
addition to the IQuBit collective.
A successful University of
Manchester graduate, Gareth is
now utilising the support of the
University to develop his
enterprise BrumBrumBeepBeep,
a web and mobile platform that
improves the experience for
both learner drivers and
independent driving instructors.
IQuBit will be accepting
applications for review from
June to August 2014. Successful
applicants will then start in
September 2014.
For more information please
visit
www.umip.com/iqubit or
contact ellie.sagar@umip.com.
Social Enterprise Update…
As UMIP completes another
successful year of supporting
social entrepreneurs our campus
wide competition, which seeks
to find, fund and support ideas
with societal benefit, closes to
new applications until the
autumn term.
As well as funding some new
ideas coming forward from staff
and academics, we have focused
on developing the opportunities
from last year's programme that
have now reached a scalable
point. These opportunities could
become the next social
enterprises to spin out from the
University so stay tuned for
further updates in the coming
months. On the back of the
need to be able to support such
high potential social
entrepreneurs through the next
development stages, the
University is delighted to
announce that it has been
successful in securing Scale and
Growth funding from the UnLtd
SEEChange Programme. The
competition for this next phase
of funding was extremely high
and we are honoured to have
been selected alongside 10 other
Higher Education Institution
partners across the UK. "This
new funding opportunity taking
us into 2015 will build on the
existing social enterprise activity
already evident throughout the
campus and start to develop a
full spectrum of support for our
social entrepreneurs," said Dr
Laura Etchells, UMIP's Enterprise
and Business Development
Manager.
Dr Gill Green of STORM Skills
Training CIC has recently been
appointed as our UMIP Social
Enterprise Ambassador to help
advise our high potential social
entrepreneurs. You can read
about Gill's appointment on
page 14. Gill will be headlining
this year's Showcasing Social
Entrepreneurs event on
Thursday 17th July at our
Innovation Centre on Grafton
Street. This will also feature case
studies from our award winners,
past and present, together with
an opportunity to network with
like-minded people. To register
for this event please go to:
http://showcasingsocialentrepren
eurs.eventbrite.co.uk.
For more information about the
ideas UMIP have funded
through the Social Enterprise
Competition to-date, please see:
http://umip.com/award-winners/
