Introduction
In November 2003, the Inhalit team from Imperial College London won $10,000 and first prize in the inaugural Idea to ProductTM International Challenge. This technology commercialisation competition was hosted by the University of Texas at Austin (UTA), one of the world’s leaders in high-tech spin-out, and has proved to be a highly successful collaboration between the UTA Engineering Faculty and the McCombs Business School. Imperial’s victory led directly to our invitation to establish Idea to Product™ Europe at the Tanaka Business School in 2006.
Our mission is to create a competitive European forum in which to enhance cross-disciplinary studies in entrepreneurship, research, technology & emerging markets.
The aim of Idea to Product™ Europe is to present a two-day technology-commercialisation competition, in which student teams from the best science, engineering and technology colleges in Europe present innovative ideas with clear routes to market. It will be hosted by the Entrepreneurship Centre at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, on 21st and 22nd June 2006.
Idea to Product™ Europe will bring together students, faculty and the professional technology entrepreneurship community from all over Europe to meet three goals:
- foster student cross-disciplinary learning in technology entrepreneurship
- pit the latest technology-commercialisation ideas against each other in a competitive but supportive arena
- enhance cross-European dialogue & networking in technology innovation
Our sponsors include HE institutions and commercial technology firms:
- Hewlett-Packard have generously supplied some of their cutting-edge products as prizes, and are sponsoring the prize-giving lunch
- The Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin has supported Idea to Product™ Europe in many ways, including a generous cash donation towards the costs of the competition
- Tanaka Business School has kindly agreed to host the competition in 2006
There are four main prizes at I2P™ Europe, including a small First Day Prize for the team that impresses the academic judges most in their initial presentation, and three main prizes to be awarded by the external panel of judges on Day Two.
We wish all the participants the best of luck.
