{"id":681,"date":"2021-12-15T12:20:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T12:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/enterprisesu\/?p=681"},"modified":"2025-07-30T08:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:02:59","slug":"whats-the-big-idea-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/2021\/12\/15\/whats-the-big-idea-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Big Idea? 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Wednesday 1st<\/sup> of December, QUB Enterprise SU held the Awards Ceremony of their annual \u2018What\u2019s the Big Idea?\u2019 competition. With \u00a32800 worth of funding to be won across 11 categories including \u2018Best Green Business Idea\u2019 and \u2018Best Idea for a Social Enterprise\u2019, the competition drew in over 50 applications from across the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponsored by Ormeau Business Park, Enterprise SU hosted a festive afternoon in celebration of the finalists, welcoming judges, university staff, and business professionals from across Belfast.\u00a0 Guests heard inspirational talks from QUB alumni Naomi McGregor, CEO of MoveTru and Bronagh Smyth, who is a User Researcher at Kainos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MC for the event, Alastair Cameron, announced PhD students Matthew O\u2019Neill and Mark Williams as the winners for \u2018Most Innovative Idea\u2019 with their idea called \u2018Pulse\u2019 \u2013 a knowledge transfer platform that helps United Nations Peacekeepers to build peace in the digital age by using data to answer complex questions and aid lifesaving decisions. Mechanical Engineering student Kyle Hutton won \u2018Best Overall Idea\u2019, with his idea of a smart beehive which can be monitored remotely and is operated using solar energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Programme Organizer, Gillian Dunn, said \u201cWhat\u2019s the Big Idea?\u2019 is an amazing platform for students starting out on their entrepreneurial journey. It encourages students to think about ideas commercially whilst providing them with the confidence they may need to turn their ideas into a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patricia McNeill, CEO of Ormeau Business Park commented \u2018Ormeau Business Park is privileged to continue the collaboration with Queen\u2019s University Belfast by sponsoring the \u2018What\u2019s the Big Idea?\u2019 Awards again in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The high standard of applications received in this year\u2019s competition showcases the wealth of innovative and visionary business ideas received from across the faculties that display true potential to scale up to become significant players in the global marketplace.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUB Enterprise SU felt that the event was a great way to end the first semester, celebrating creativity and rewarding innovation amongst students. Enterprise SU launched their semester 2 competition \u2018QUB Dragon\u2019s Den\u2019 at the event, which gives students the opportunity to take their business\u2019 to the next level with a more detailed application form, a tougher competitive process, and a bigger financial reward worth \u00a320,000. QUB students can find out more about entering this competition on the Enterprise SU website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Wednesday 1st of December, QUB Enterprise SU held the Awards Ceremony of their annual \u2018What\u2019s the Big Idea?\u2019 competition. With \u00a32800 worth of funding to be won across 11 categories including \u2018Best Green Business Idea\u2019 and \u2018Best Idea for a Social Enterprise\u2019, the competition drew in over 50 applications from across the university. Sponsored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,299,1,66,72],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-programmes","8":"category-student-businesses","9":"category-uncategorised","10":"category-upskilling-opportunities","11":"category-whats-the-big-idea","12":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/12\/PIC-123.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B2ST-aZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4556,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/4556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}