Awards to celebrate innovative efforts to beat the recession

Through using the HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) Economic Challenge Investment Fund, Smart Solutions has seen some major highlights - from providing funding for research to preserve a moth found only at one Cornish beach to new technology which could provide a new source of biofuel.

Sean Fielding, Director of Research & Knowledge Transfer at the University of Exeter said: “Smart Solutions is all about creating partnerships between higher education and businesses to share expertise, research and knowledge. In difficult economic times, it makes perfect sense to combine some of the fantastic entrepreneurial ideas out there with the facilities, research, and other resources we have here at the University.

“We’ve been very successful in forming a significant number of partnerships and offering support from student placements through to research and development vouchers. We’re proud of some of the achievements that have resulted from this initiative and we’ll be celebrating a few of those with this special awards evening where we recognise the efforts of businesses, academics, students, graduates and student entrepreneurs.”

The event will be held at the Sandy Park Conference & Banqueting Centre on 9 December and a total of five awards will be handed out: Outstanding Impact in Science & Technology R&D Project, Outstanding Impact in Social Science R&D Project, Smart Solutions Student Entrepreneurship Award, Outstanding Leadership Award, and Best student or graduate placement.