Loughborough graduate claims top prize at international enterprise competition

Jessica Rui Ting Lee.

Loughborough University graduate Jessica Rui Ting Lee was among the team to be awarded The Sirius Programme’s top prize during the UKTI’s Entrepreneurs’ Festival in Manchester.

The UKTI’s Sirius Programme – which encourages international entrepreneurial talent to set up in the UK – offers start-up support, investment and acceleration packages to participating students and recent graduates.

Jessica and her 3D Life team mates fought off stiff competition to win the Most Innovative Prize with their sustainable and cost-effective water filtration system for developing countries. The team – boasting members from seven countries and four continents – each won a two hour mentoring session with Barclays to aid the development of their own ideas.

Advanced Manufacturing Engineering and Management graduate Jessica said: “Winning this award has given us all great confidence in our entrepreneurial ability. Not only was this competition a great opportunity to work as a team with people from all over the world, it allowed us to develop our business acumen too. We can’t wait to apply for The Sirius Programme with the hope of being one step closer to transforming our business ideas into a reality within the UK.”

Successful applicants to Sirius join a comprehensive 12-month accelerator programme of support and mentoring which includes a generous financial package to help them get their business ideas off the ground.

Nick Baird, Chief Executive of UKTI praised Jessica on her achievement: “I congratulate Jessica on winning this award – the calibre of all the entrants from the festival was superb, but Jessica and her team had the edge across the board, so it is great to hear that they will be applying for the Sirius Programme.”

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