Dragons’ Den (in the UK) or Shark tank (in the US) is the programme where budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to wealthy investors in the hope of securing investment for their business. The concept is a really popular one and universities up and down the UK regularly run Dragons’ Den sessions to encourage student entrepreneurship
The University is establishing a number of inter/multi-disciplinary research themes that focus on the university’s research strengths and map to large scale funding opportunities such as the RCUK Global Challenges/H2020/UN Global Goals.Having submitted to the dragons a plan that would establish an ambitious research area to tackle some of the big societal challenges or their idea for an inter/multi-disciplinary research theme that plays to the University of Stirling’s unique strengths selected teams have been invited to pitch their ideas to the dragons.
Oxford University has announced its own pitching competition to find the most innovative and entrepreneurial ideas from staff and students in the faculties of the Humanities Division.Unfortunately, candidates for the Humanities Innovation Challenge will not be offered £200,000 by Peter Jones or Deborah Meaden.But the winner will receive £1,000 to launch the idea and £5,000 of in-kind support to help it to grow.
the opportunity to pitch your idea for either a new on-campus business venture or a service improvement initiative, with the potential to receive management support, business mentoring and resources from the University to turn your idea into a reality.
Deans and associate deans were instructed to take on the role of “CEO of your school,” and to assume they would be given a hypothetical $1 million to invest in their college’s academic program. They would give committee members a summary of their analysis of programs and how they would distribute “investment funds,” according to the email about the meeting, which was obtained byThe Chronicle.“The allocation should reflect where you believe your school will receive the greatest return on investment based on your analysis and presentation of achievable program outcomes (cost savings and/or enrollment and revenue growth),” read the memo.The committee, comprising four top administrators plus the deans and associate deans who were not in the hot seat, would become the “Investment Committee” and ask presenters questions or provide more information, according to the memo.And just like inShark Tank, there would be clear losers. “Remember that some programs should receive zero investment dollars because they have been targeted for divestment,” read the memo.
Perhaps instead look at a more rounded approach – courtesy of QAA: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Enterprise-and-entrpreneurship-education-2018.pdf