This year, as part of the Department of Computer Science Entrepreneurship activities, we are launching our first “Dragons’ Den”  style competition, Building Bright Ideas.

The competition will run throughout the first and second semester, and is generously supported by WA:UK Tech Angels, an angel investor company (part of the Web Applications UK Group who are a leading IT company based in the UK’s North West region), who are sponsoring the contest by offering three prizes for the best three proposals.

All students enrolled in a BSc, MSc, MEng or PhD programmes are invited, individually or as a team, to develop and present a new software venture commercial/business proposal. The competition is based on developing an innovative idea, from its infancy to the development of a fully-written business case, and will culminate in the development of a ‘pitch’, a short oral presentation highlighting the merits and feasibility of the idea. In order to support you in the development of the pitch, we will run seminars with speakers from WA:UK Tech Angels and the University Entrepreneurship team, who will guide you and provide you support in investigating the key aspects of a business plan to support your proposed enterprise - e.g. likely size of market, nature of the competition, costs and financial projections, etc.

We welcome multi-disciplinary teams and the participations of students from other schools and departments. Ideally teams will be composed of 2 to 4 people who will work together on the development of the business case.

This is a selective competition, only a few of the teams will be invited to submit their pitch to the Dragons’ Den, and the Dragons will then decide on how to award the prizes. The best idea will receive a cash prize of £ 1,000 and the possibility of developing the idea as part of the WA:UK Tech Angels umbrella. The second and third best proposals will be awarded £ 300 and £ 200 respectively, and the support of the University Entrepreneurship Team to further develop these ideas. 

If you think you have a good commercial idea, be it an app, a website, a portal, etc. then submit your interest at csstudy@liv.ac.uk, indicating “Building Bright Ideas” in the subject of the email.

The first seminar will take place on December 2nd, at 1.00 pm in room ELEC - ELT.

For more information email Dr Valentina Tamma or Dr Terry R Payne

Rules & Regulations

The rules for the competition can be found here, and are listed below.  These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

The competition is operated by WAUK Tech Angels Limited strictly on a not-for-profit basis.

1. 1.WAUK Tech Angels do not guarantee or imply that participation in the Competition will in any way influence any subsequent decision in respect of an application for investment.
   

2. 2.Employees of WAUK Tech Angels Limited or those of its affiliates and their close relatives or any person connected to the competition are not permitted to take part.
   

3. 3.This competition is open to individuals or groups in the UK providing at least 50% of the members of the team are current students/alumni of the host university.
   

4. 4.If entrants are under 16, their parent or guardian must consent to their entry and indicate this consent on the entry form to confirm that the entrant has complied with these terms and conditions. Proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested.
   

5. 5.Only one entry per individual or group is permitted. If you submit as part of a group you will not be eligible to submit an individual entry. If you submit an entry as an individual you will not be eligible to submit as part of a group.
   

6. 6.Entries must be completely original and entirely the entrant’s own work.
   

7. 7.WAUK Tech Angels discourage entrants from paying for supplementary materials and services in relation to their submission, and will not take any responsibility whatsoever for any costs incurred in relation to competition entries.
   

8. 8.Entrants should be aware that in disclosing information regarding their idea to WAUK Tech Angels, they may lose the ability to patent the idea in the future as patents will not be granted for anything that has already been made public. If entrants believe that their idea is patentable, they should take independent legal advice before entering this competition. Further information can be found at the UK Intellectual Property Office website.
   

9. 9.Entrants retain the copyright and intellectual property rights in their entry but grant WAUK Tech Angels Limited non-exclusive licence to broadcast the entry across all media including any online platforms.
   

10. 10.If an entrant obtains investment from WAUK Tech Angels Limited outside of the competition, a formal agreement over the ownership of the intellectual property rights will be agreed at that time.
    

11. 11.By entering the competition, entrants warrant that they have legal capacity to enter the competition and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
    

12. 12.Entrants must agree to take part in any post-competition publicity if required.
    

13. 13.WAUK Tech Angels Limited’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to the competition and in particular the judging process.
    

14. 14.WAUK Tech Angels Limited reserves the right to cancel this competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside its control.
    

15. 15.WAUK Tech Angels Limited reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at any stage, including changing or substituting the prize.