Around 200 highly skilled international engineers from nine different countries will come to London over the coming two months starting to attend a specially designed, eight-day intensive residential course in entrepreneurship and innovation delivered by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The 200 engineers have been selected from a shortlist of thousands to receive a Leaders in innovation fellowship, designed to increase research and innovation capacity in emerging nations. The fellowships are aimed at engineering researchers developing or wanting to develop a business based on their own innovations.
The researchers will receive entrepreneurial training from expert coaches, honing skills such as writing business models, presentation and pitching and will also spend time with a UK company tackling a real market challenge. By the end of the course, the researchers will have developed a commercialisation plan for their own innovations.
Shane McHugh, head of International Activities at the Royal Academy of Engineering, commented: "This programme will give researchers in partner countries the confidence and skills to help commercialise their innovations. But equally importantly, it gives them links to their UK peers which will benefit both countries as their businesses develop.”
The programme is part of the broader UK Newton Fund which seeks to build international science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.
During the programme, the researchers will have the opportunity to network with their mentors, representatives of technology driven organisations, and eachother. All participants in the Leaders in innovation fellowship programme will automatically join an international network of innovators and mentors linked to the Academy’s Enterprise Hub.
On their return from the programme, each cohort will receive continuing support for their development from their respective home countries.
