E-Challenge phase one winners announced

The annual business plan competition and workshop programme is now in its fifth year, and was established by UCL and the London Business School as a way to introduce participants to the main concepts involved in starting a new business. The competition is open to all staff, students and alumni of both institutions.

Phase one of the competition involves making a critical assessment of an idea for a business, to see whether it is worth pursuing. Participants had to make a written submission and then present their idea to a panel of judges and their peers.

The 'Bring it Back' team won the £1,000 prize with an idea to develop a water purification system that will form part of larger appliances. Runners-up from the undergraduate category were 'ClinSkills', while 'ProFocal' brought home the runners-up prize for the postgraduate and staff category.

Dr Nathaniel Milton (UCL Clinical Neurosciences) was one of the judges. He remarked: "The E-Challenge is going from strength to strength. With so many excellent ideas and presentations this time round I am looking forward to an exciting and very competitive final in March." Dr Milton won the first E-Challenge title in 2001/2002 and has since gone on to start his own company, NeuroDelta.

Mr Tim Barnes (UCL Centre for Enterprise & the Management of Innovation), founder of E-Challenge, said: "E-Challenge will continue next term and it is possible to sign-up at any time - you do not have to have taken part in phase one to be eligible for phase two. Just visit the website. From January, the focus of the workshops will now move on to a deeper level as we progress to phase two: the business plan!"