The 2023 Ingenuity Programme has come to a close and, after a final round of pitching to an expert panel, we have our winners. From Yorkshire and Humber to the South Coast, we saw some amazing ideas for impactful businesses than can change the way we live, and our 2023 National Finalists secured £75,000 of funding to help them in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journeys.

Our 2023 winners received their awards at the Ingenuity showcase at the East Midlands Conference Centre, part of the University of Nottingham’s Power of Partnerships Conference on 16 June 2023.

Let’s meet the 2023 winners:

Sponsored by Nuffield Health

Our 2023 Overall Impact Entrepreneur of the Year is Richard Holmes, who founded Global Anthem. 

Richard Holmes is the founder of Global Anthem. His impact-driven business tackles the traumatic and educationally disruptive uprooting of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers and the unmet basic need to communicate across multiple languages, countries and boundaries at both a humanitarian and official level. Global Anthem offers an alternative and augmentative communication system developed to bridge this gap utilising natural and intuitive hand gestures and the development of easy-to-use flashcards with a non-specific gender and race illustration that can be used across any language or culture.

Sponsored by Nuffield Health

Katie Michaels, a Loughborough University alumni, won the Health Champion award for Moti Me, which aims to help children with disabilities. She has identified that a lack of access to physiotherapy and physical activity sessions guided by healthcare professionals can be detrimental for children with disabilities in achieving their developmental milestones and how parents often struggle to continue the exercises at home. Moti Me includes a handheld device, mat and guidance app to support parents or caregivers and their child with special needs to practice physio and carry out developmental exercises in the home environment.

Andrew Raslan and Pipeline Organics won the Climate Champion award. Pipeline Organics focuses on the climate challenge of fossil fuel electricity emitting polluting greenhouse gases and wastewater treatment plants using large amounts of electricity whilst water companies struggle to meeting government net zero targets. The Pipeline Organics solution of TankArc is an enzymatic biofuel cell product that generates electricity through the breakdown of liquid organic waste in the wastewater treatment process with the aim to produce year-round, cheap, clean bioenergy from wastewater.

Emma Redfern, a Sheffield Hallam University student, won the Community Champion. Studio Self-Made addresses how most creative industry placements require relocation, which can be prohibitively expensive for many working class young people and how the reduction in higher education funding for art and design courses prevents students from less privileged backgrounds pursuing a creative career. Studio Self-Made provides an online education platform that helps bridge the gap between university and the working world through a digital internship with the mission to democratise creative career education.

Jared Spencer, a University of Nottingham alumnus, won the University of Nottingham (UoN) Impact Entrepreneur of the Year award, for his business RIDDIM, which addresses the rise in allergens as the most common chronic disease in Europe where many people with allergies struggle daily with the fear of possible asthma attack, anaphylactic shock, or even death from an allergic reaction. RIDDIM is a dietarily inclusive, culturally relevant snack company which draws its inspiration from the flavours and the stories of the Caribbean to produce a range of tasty snack products free from 13 of the 14 major allergens.

Supported by Santander Universities

Paul McCreery, a Ingenuity Lab member at the University of Nottingham, has developed FUNKI DRINKS a range of soft drinks designed to help people get more fiber in their diet. FUNKI DRINKS is a “gut loving soda” that aims to make getting your daily fibre tasty, cheap and easy. The sustainable drinks company was formed after founder Paul McCreery found that only 9% of people in the UK consume the recommended amount of fibre every day.

Snazzybird’s mission is to tackle the environmental crisis caused by the staggering amount of furniture waste that ends up in landfills each year: 22 million pieces a year in the UK alone. Their goal is to provide affordable luxury furniture to millennials, while also creating a circular economy where no piece ever ends up in a landfill.

Supported by Santander Universities

Footbus is an easy-to-use app to centralise and simplify meeting up and walking in a group. Footbus promotes the most sustainable form of transport – walking – while encouraging a sense of community and keeping students safe.

Total Rotters is an initiative that aims to improve soil quality through food waste, making community composting accessible through workshops, talks, worm farms and support packages.

Empower Careers is a social enterprise designed to provide career support to underrepresented students in rural schools. It aims to provide bespoke careers information and work experience services to schools of need to help provide direct career access, specialised advice and overall encounters with employers.

Supported by Santander Universities

Butterfly is a social media platform that aims to target student loneliness by reducing the barriers between students, with events, discounts and other incentives to help students connect at university and create long-lasting connections. They aim to reduce student stress, anxiety, and isolation by 18.75% over 3 years, which means bringing a community to 525000 isolated students.

nutume is aimed at the student market, nutume facilitates the free transfer of items no longer needed, such as books, clothing and household items, tackling the dual issues of cost of living and waste.

Supported by Santander Universities

Global Anthem, offers an alternative and augmentative communication system developed to bridge this gap utilising natural and intuitive hand gestures and the development of easy-to-use flashcards with a non-specific gender and race illustration that can be used across any language or culture.

Sky Based Solutions CIC aims to provide working opportunities for those who have sustained life-changing injuries, which have rendered them disabled. By offering tailored training programs, mentorship, and employment opportunities, they will empower individuals to overcome their limitations, achieve their goals, and actively participate in creating a more equitable and environmentally responsible world.

Supported by Santander Universities

Mose Rising is a set of community projects which strives to empower marginalised communities to thrive. Formed to bridge the gap of underprivileged communities and individuals in the creative industry. The company’s goal is to empower marginalised groups and provide equitable chances and assistance for personal and professional achievement, regardless of
socioeconomic status.

CareHandle addresses a lack of support for individuals seeking care for loved ones, often during a stressful time. CareHandle’s mission is to support the social care system and positively impact the substantial ongoing costs that people pay for care.

Supported by Santander Universities

RenoTip is an innovative company with the mission of reducing plastic waste from scientific laboratories. Placing sustainability at the heart of life science industry by ensuring singe-use laboratory plastics can be reduced, reused, and repurposed.

Socially Responsible Content is a social enterprise that aims to change the way marginalised communities and at-risk groups are represented in online marketing. They work with NGOs and companies to produce ethical online storytelling that empowers the beneficiary community.

If you’re interested in supporting any of our 2023 National Champions, via mentoring, industry connections or early-stage funding, get in contact with us at ingenuity@nottingham.ac.uk