On 21 September, the Ingenuity Lab Competition was successfully held in the Innovation and Enterprise Building at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). Seven teams, consisting of students from UNNC's three faculties, participated in the competition. They presented their business plans and fielded questions from judges representing both academia and industry. In the end, the business plans of three teams stood out, and they were awarded Student Entrepreneurship Seed Fund of 50,000 RMB, 30,000 RMB, and 20,000 RMB, respectively.
The organiser of this competition, the Ingenuity Lab, is an international platform to support students' innovation and entrepreneurship, jointly developed by the three campuses of the University of Nottingham. By organising visits to industry-leading companies, conducting Plug-in Programmes to introduce cutting-edge international business education, and hosting Summer Bootcamp that invite international mentors to guide students face-to-face, the Ingenuity Lab not only creates valuable opportunities for direct exchange between academia and industry but also allows students to apply the knowledge from their programmes in real life, which in turn inspires them to ignite their passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Student Entrepreneurship Seed Fund, sponsored by UNNC Li Dak Sum Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund, will support winning teams in carrying out proof-of-concept studies and transforming the results into practical applications.
Prof Kok Wei Khong, Dean of Nottingham University Business School China, stated in his speech that the Ingenuity Lab is designed to inspire and help students embark on their entrepreneurial journey. By participating in the various activities organised by the Lab, students can not only enhance their academic knowledge and cultivate a sense of innovation but also accumulate valuable experience for future entrepreneurship. He encouraged students to be brave in making trials and errors on their entrepreneurial path, as the cost of making and correcting mistakes is the lowest at university.
For this competition, the Ingenuity Lab invited not only academics from the Business School but also two senior industry professionals as judges. As one of the judges emphasised to the teams: "this is not an ordinary student competition but a real startup roadshow, and what you need to do is to convince investors to invest in your business."
In the competition, each team needed to present their business plan to the judges within 10 minutes, covering aspects such as company purpose, market scale, solution, product , business model, financial status, and development plan etc. Immediately afterward, the judges asked the contestants questions as potential investors, . Finally, the judges upheld the principles of objectivity, fairness, and impartiality to evaluate the business plans of the participating teams. The evaluation criteria include product innovation, the completeness and feasibility of the business model, the team division and organizational structure, and the reasonableness of the business development strategy and scale expansion strategy.
In this competition, the business focuses of the seven participating teams were highly diversed, covering areas such as the sleep economy, social software, the pet industry, and online gaming. Ultimately, following the live demonstrations and a Q&A session, the judges unanimously concluded that the two business plans centered on the pet industry excelled in terms of innovation, market potential, and implementation feasibility. Consequently, they were awarded the first and second place, respectively, while the project related to online gaming secured the third place.