The University of Ulster is to give 30 students the opportunity to start and run their own businesses while still continuing with their studies.

Each of the students will be entitled to funding support of up to £6,000 to help pay for equipment and other resources and they will also receive advice and mentoring.

The students will be selected from across UU’s five faculties. The student business initiative is part of the innovative SPEED (Student Placement for Entrepreneurs in Education) project which is supported under the Government’s Higher Education Innovation Fund.

In total the SPEED project is worth £5m and brings together 12 Higher Education institutions from throughout the UK as well as numerous business and enterprise partners.

Dr Patrick Ibbotson and Dr Elaine Ramsey from UU’s School of Business, Retail and Financial Services spearheaded the University’s bid to become part of the SPEED project and have been given a total of £180,000 to fund the student business drive.

Dr. Patrick Ibbotson says: "Through such initiatives as the 25k competition and the innovation generation scheme (PinG) it’s clear that students at UU are not short on ideas. But it's been very frustrating not to be able to offer practical financial support to turn these great ideas into real businesses. So in reality SPEED is the last piece in the jigsaw for us”.

Over the next two years, all registered students at the University will be able to apply for SPEED funding for their enterprise placements. The University welcomes applications from teams of up to three people, with the first cohort starting their projects in June 2007.

Any University of Ulster student who would like to learn more about SPEED and obtain an application form should: Visit the SPEED project website: Contact Dr. Patrick Ibbotson or,Talk to their Faculty’s academic enterprise coordinator: Arts: Kate Bond, Business and Management: John Thompson, Engineering: Jo nathan Wallace, Life & Health Sciences: Peter Mitchell, Social Sciences: Mike Smyth

Visit the SPEED project website at: http://www.busmgt.ulster.ac.uk/business/speed/

Interested parties may also contact Dr. Patrick Ibbotson (pg.ibbotson@ulster.ac.uk), or  talk to  Faculty academic enterprise coordinators, who are: Arts – Kate Bond (ke.bond@ulster.ac.uk), Business and Management – John Thompson (je.thompson@ulster.ac.uk), Engineering – Jonathan Wallace (jg.wallace@ulster.ac.uk), Life & Health Sciences – Peter Mitchell (pc.mitchell@ulster.ac.uk), Social Sciences – Mike Smyth (mf.smyth@ulster.ac.uk)  

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter