Lancaster University are looking out for new entrepreneurs and their business ventures to compete in the 2014 China-UK Challenge.
Lancaster University, University College London, the University of Edinburgh, University of East Anglia and the China Innovation Development Association UK organise the annual event.
The well-supported initiative has been developed by a set of leading UK and Chinese universities to bring together ideas on business strategy and market position as well as the creativity of innovation.
The aim of the competition is to establish new business links between the two highly advanced countries in the hope of promoting future and more widespread business relationships.
There is a relatively high-level of entrepreneurial activity in both the UK and China. According to the official China-UK challenge website 24.5% of the Chinese population is in some way involved in some sort of entrepreneurial venture as well as 10.5% in the UK.
Mr. James Stewart added: “The Chinese teams are of extremely high quality, both in the perspective of the product, and the markets. The competition provide excellent opportunity for the UK and China to work together to support new business ideas that link the two countries”.
Professor David Brown of the Lancaster China Management Centre and one of the speakers at the launch, said: “This competition is unique in highlighting the important opportunities of working with China, which is critical for the UK. The fact that the competition partners are located in different regions is a big help. It means that anyone with new ideas has easy access to the competition.”
Last year’s winning team, Oxford University’s Boxbio, took home the title by creating a multi-functional vegetable tablet with a patented formula and compound process. This tablet can trigger the recovery of human immune system.
To be eligible for entrance into the competition all participants must be final-year students from a UK or Chinese institution or be a post-doctoral researcher. The competition also welcomes applicants who lead a start-up company of less than two years old with existing university links.
The teams selected to take part will be competing for the chance to win a £5,000 cash prize, and an investment opportunity of £250,000 for the best business plans. Initial registration, proposal submission and selection deadline is 5pm, April 14th 2014.
