Thank you for choosing to support the Enterprise Lab and the brand new Pioneer Fund. 

Currently, students can access funding by entering big competitions - like WE Innovate or the Venture Catalyst Challenge - which include prizes of up to £80,000. But these competitions require students to have already done a significant amount of research and testing, and there is currently very little funding available to help students at the crucial early stages of trialling their idea. 

By launching the Pioneer Fund, we hope that alumni and friends will help fill this gap and allow students to apply for small grants right at the start of their project - allowing them to get their ideas off the ground. 

The idea is to provide a larger number of smaller grants - depending on the needs of the project anything from £500 t0 £1,500 - to help students at the very early stages. We aim to lower the barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship by keeping the amounts relatively small, and also offering courses and training alongside funding. We hope this will encourage more students to take part, to test more ideas, learn by doing and thus give us a greater chance of funding some truly world-changing innovations.

Innovations like Ooho, created by Skipping Rocks Lab, an inspired solution to the world's plastic problem. You may have seen their biodegradable packaging used at the London Marathon to serve Lucozade to runners or as replacement condiment sachet in Partnership with Just Eat. 

Or Cadget, a breathable, washable, and easy to apply cast which won this year's WE Innovate competition. This cast needs no additional equipment making it easy to apply and can be used in isolated areas where access to healthcare equipment is often not possible.

For every exciting innovation like Ooho or Cadget that gets developed, there are many more which simply never get off the ground. That's why we are hoping you will get behind the new Pioneer Fund - to help give as many brilliant Imperial students as possible the opportunity to try out their ideas, and give us a better chance of benefitting from more of the amazing solutions our world so desperately needs.

You can make your gift below. Thank you for your support.