Queen Mary hosts an entrepreneurship and leadership programme for budding entrepreneurs

79 students sitting in rows in a lecture theatre with the Union Jack and Mexican flags on the table in front of them,

During their three-week programme the students, who stayed on Queen Mary’s Mile End campus, met with academics and staff from across the University who taught them about innovation, entrepreneurship, and more.

Armed with this new knowledge and skills, the students developed ideas and plans for their own businesses, ranging from mobility, health and fem-tech to plastic-munching biocatalysts and sustainable solutions to energy consumption and waste management, which they then pitched to a panel of Queen Mary experts, Dragon’s Den style.

From these pitches, three winners were chosen, all hoping to follow in the footsteps of one of last year’s winners who received funding from the Mexican Government to further develop their business idea.

Speaking about the programme, Dr Philippa Lloyd, Vice-Principal (Policy and Strategic Partnerships) and Professor Teresa Alonso Ragado (Associate Vice-Principal, Strategic Partnerships) at Queen Mary said: “We were delighted to be able to host this entrepreneurship and leadership programme for students from IPN for the second year running. Once again, we were incredibly impressed by the quality of pitches presented by the students. They were considered, well developed and relevant, and showed that they fully embraced and took on board everything that they learned during their time with us. I look forward to seeing what they go on to do, not only with these ideas but in their careers.

“We would also like to thank everyone at Queen Mary who was involved in making this programme happen - in particular, Sophie Kidane who undertook all the administrative work and monitored the programme during the duration. It is thanks to them that the programme ran so smoothly for all involved.”