North-East competition offers innovators £20,000 support

Innovation

A new competition to help transform scientific ideas into product realties has been launched in the North-East of England.

Newcastle Science City has launched the contest with a 20,000 prize to help encourage innovation and give support to either a company or individual with the drive to put plans into business action.

The key areas the organisation is looking for innovations in are ageing and health, sustainability or regenerative medicine.

Simon Green, project manager at Newcastle Science City, said: "The competition presents a phenomenal opportunity to businesses and individuals to develop their ideas and realise their potential especially in the current economic climate when investment can be difficult to secure."

"At Newcastle Science City we have the right expertise and the connections to create innovate, high-growth businesses and this competition will help accelerate that."

Once the applications have been made, six contenders will be short-listed and be in the running to win the support from the organisation, which could include market research, marketing, software development and intellectual property protection.

It is then hoped the product could come to market in as little as 12 months.

Newcastle Science City is a joint venture between Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council and One North East in an attempt to encourage the science industry in the area.

Candidates have to want to be based in the North-East and applications must be submitted Friday 11 February at 5pm.

Click here to make an application.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.