Still time to enter the Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies Competition 2021
ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY SUNDAY 18 APRIL
The Royal Society of Chemistry has launched its Emerging Technologies Competition 2021, inviting the next generation of tech innovators, start-ups and spin outs to come forward with ground-breaking ideas.
The competition - entering its ninth year - works to identify some of the most novel, innovative and promising chemistry from across Europe.
The programme provides a unique platform for innovators to engage directly with and learn from large multinational partners and judges - including AstraZeneca, Boots, Croda, Johnson Matthey, M&S, Pepsico, Scott Bader, Reckitt Benckiser, RSSL, and Unilever - to build exposure and unrivalled industry validation for their projects.
Winners will enjoy £160,000 no-strings funding and support to accelerate their businesses across each of the core categories of Health, Energy & Environment, Food & Drink and Enabling Technologies.
Jo Reynolds, Director of Science & Communities at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “We were so impressed with the way last year’s difficult circumstances inspired such an array of terrific ideas for using chemistry to tackle the challenges we are facing, and we eagerly await applications for 2021 as we continue to experience the consequences of this pandemic and other global issues.
“This competition consistently demonstrates the prominent role that chemistry can play – not only in developing solutions to pressing societal challenges and countering threats to the health of our planet – but also in driving economic growth. Once again, budding tech innovators, agile start-ups and spin-outs have a huge opportunity to show how they can contribute.
“We are also proud to welcome back many of our highly experienced judges for another year, alongside some new faces. Together, we are very much looking forward to seeing, first-hand, some creative innovations that hold such promise for our collective future.”
Each winner stands to gain £20,000 prize money as well as 12 months’ one-on-one support from a specially assigned Royal Society of Chemistry mentor, and a further £20,000 available as a business acceleration grant.
Previous winners
Last year’s winners tackled issues from stabilising vaccines without refrigeration using machine learning to expand stem cells and make cultivated meat products. In 2021, the competition is once again calling on entrants to demonstrate the leading challenges they could help to overcome for the benefit of the scientific community, industry and society as a whole.
Emerging Technologies Competition winners from previous years have gone on to raise a combined total of over £51m in equity investment and grant funding, with one company subsequently being sold for £28m.
Winners and participants have significantly raised their profiles, expanded overseas, entered commercial contracts, conducted clinical and industrial scale trials, and collectively doubled their staff.
The competition is free to apply to and welcomes applicants from the UK and Europe whose technology has a strong component of chemistry, in one of the following categories:
- Health
- Energy & environment
- Food & drink
- Enabling technologies
Applicants have until Sunday 18 April to submit their entries. A shortlist of finalists will be revealed in late May, ahead of the Emerging Technologies Final event in June.