UK, 15th July 2015 – SETsquared has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for its work in nurturing a new generation of university entrepreneurs.

The partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey is shortlisted in the Higher Education Enterprise Champion category of the National Enterprise Educator Awards.

Judges were impressed with SETsquared’s Researcher to Innovator programme, which helps researchers with promising ideas and projects who lack the skills and knowledge to convert them into commercial realities.

The programme, which runs over six months is aimed at the brightest and best postdoctoral researchers in any discipline, has already helped 100 people hone their ideas over the last three years. Success stories include:

• TrueInvivo, a Surrey company that has developed an innovative method of measuring radiation dosage and spread in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. The company has since gone on to secure places in SETsquared’s other entrepreneurship programmes and this summer won the Grant Thornton Entrepreneurial Excellence Award
• Inductosense, a company that has developed compact wireless sensing technology that can be embedded into structures and products for low-cost monitoring.
Simon Bond, Innovation Director for SETsquared, said: “We are truly honoured to be shortlisted for this award. Seeing the phenomenal success of the entrepreneurs we support is reward enough for us so this really is the icing on the cake.”

SETsquared will find out if it has won at the IEEC2015 Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony in Chelmsford on September 10. If the partnership does scoop the award it will add to its long list of prestigious titles, which include top university business incubator in Europe and the number two university business incubator in the world.

ENDS

About SETsquared:
SETsquared is a long-standing partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey which specialises in growing high-tech start-ups through its incubation programme and other business acceleration services. SETsquared provides mentoring, access to investors and corporate innovators and a wide range of industry experts through its network and training programmes.

Its business incubation programme is ranked by the University Business Incubator Index as the best in Europe and second in the world and over the last decade it has helped over 1,000 high-tech start-ups to develop and raise more than a £1bn of investment.

Independent research carried out by Warwick Economics estimates the economic impact of SETsquared member companies to be £3.8bn over this period, with the creation of 9,000 jobs and that these companies will go on to deliver a further £7.3bn of impact to the UK economy in the decade ahead.

For further information please contact:
Laura Downton at Carswell Gould T: 023 80 238001 E: laura[at]carswellgould[dot]co.uk
Distributed on behalf of Carswell Gould by NeonDrum news distribution service (http://www.neondrum.com)