Launch.ed commended for enterprise

The team behind the University of Edinburgh's LAUNCH.ed programme for student entrepreneurs has received national recognition for its role in transforming the enterprise curriculum at the University.

Rebecca Barr, Brian Baillie, Paul Devlin, and Hilary Singer Roberts were highly commended in the 2012 National Enterprise Educator Awards.

Previous successes

This award is the latest in a series for the team, which provides business advice, training and seed funding to University of Edinburgh students and recent alumni with business ideas.

Earlier this year, Brian Baillie was also named Enterprise Educator of the Year by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.

In November 2011, LAUNCH.ed received the Higher Education Innovation Award from trade journal EducationInvestor.

Facts and figures

In the 2011/2012 academic year, LAUNCH.ed helped students start 30 new businesses, tying the record they set the previous year for the highest number of student business start-ups from a Scottish university in a single year.

The team also:

• provided one-to-one business mentoring and support to nearly 200 students with business ideas
• invested more than £55,000 in seed-funding in high-growth potential technology start-ups
• helped student clients leverage more than £350,000 in funding from external sources.

Photo credit: Plymouth University