Imperial launches the 2015-16 Althea-Imperial Programme

Professor Maggie Dallman

A top prize of £10,000 is up for grabs as Imperial launches this year's Althea-Imperial Programme.

The Althea-Imperial Programme is a personal and professional development programme aimed at aspiring women entrepreneurs studying at Imperial.

Althea-Imperial 2015-16 Launch

It is the second year Imperial has run the programme, which consists of a series of workshops designed to help participants develop their project idea, as well as high-profile speakers and one-to-one mentoring.

Professor Maggie Dallman, Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships) said: “The thing that really makes Althea stand out from the other entrepreneurial activity that we run at the College is that Althea really is a programme of activity and not just a single event. It’s a whole personal and professional development programme.”

Once the programme is complete, all participants are able to enter their ideas in the Althea-Imperial Prize to compete for the top prize of £10,000.

Looking back

Three of last year’s finalists - Clementine Chambon, Kerry O’Donnelly and Angela de Manzanos - spoke at the event to give advice and inspire this year’s potential applicants to take part in the Althea-Imperial Programme.

Clementine Chambon - Oorja

Clementine Chambon

Clementine Chambon, a PhD student in Chemical Engineering, was a runner up in last year’s programme with Oorja, an affordable small scale energy generator to transform agricultural waste in rural India into clean energy.

Since last year’s competition Clementine has continued to develop Oorja, undertaking a field survey in Uttar Pradesh, India, meeting key stakeholders and conducting energy demand analysis. She and her co-founder have been awarded a prestigious Climate Fellowship from Echoing Green. The Fellowship is awarded annually to the best next-generation social entrepreneurs and consists of $90,000 in seed funding, mentoring and support.

Clementine said: “For me one of the key benefits of the programme is the relationships you make from it. It’s important to have role models -  it’s something women in STEM can often lack -  and having someone there who has made it in the real world to inspire you is great.

“The programme helps you build the confidence to try and develop a company. I know people who have taken a long time to admit they’re working on a start-up because they’ve been too shy to call it a start-up. The programme helps give you the confidence to do that.”

Angela de Manzanos and Kerry O’Donnelly - FungiAlert

Angela de Manzanos and Kerry O'Donnelly

Angela de Manzanos and Kerry O’Donnelly, two PhD students from the Chemical Biology Centre for Doctoral Training, were runners up in last year’s programme with FungiAlert, a low-cost, easy to use device that allows farmers to detect the presence of fungal spores before they infect crops.

Since winning their prize, the team have registered their company and have secured lab space for further prototyping. They’ve also been carrying out further market research to validate their technology in other potential markets.

Angela de Manzanos said: “Having the opportunity of joining a competition like this, a competition for women, really inspired us.

“The workshops are great as they both develop your entrepreneurial skills and give you access to some great speakers. The speakers are all really inspirational women sharing their stories. You can really learn a lot from them so it’s definitely something to take advantage of.

“The mentoring is also a big advantage. Coming from academia we knew marketing and selling our product was our weak spot, so we got an expert mentor in marketing which was a big help.”

Applications to the programme are now open - the deadline for applications is 17.00 on Monday 19 October.