Althea-Imperial Programme enters its third year

The hunt is on for the College's brightest entrepreneurial women, as this year's Althea-Imperial Programme launches.

The programme, now in its third year, is a pioneering initiative to inspire women in science, technology and business to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions.

A collaboration between Imperial and the Althea Foundation, the programme consists of workshops with high-profile speakers, business coaching, one-to-one mentoring, performance training and networking opportunities to help students develop their innovative ideas into an enterprising project.

At the end of the programme, selected finalists can compete for a total of £20,000 to put towards the development of their idea.

Gabriella Santosa took home last year's top prize

Last year Life Sciences student Gabriella Santosa took home the prize for CustoMem – a new membrane technology to filter hazardous micropollutants from industrial waste water.

The team use a specially engineered bacteria to produce the membranes, meaning that the manufacturing process is sustainable, low cost, low energy, and doesn’t rely on or produce any hazardous chemicals – unlike current methods.

Since winning the Althea-Imperial prize, Gabriella and her co-founder Henrik Hagemann have gone on to recruit two full time members of staff and have been meeting with suppliers and manufacturers to take their product forward.

Billion dollar ideas

Sarah Wood, co-founder of Unruly media addressed students at the launch

Previous finalists include FungiAlert – founded by Angela de Manzanos and Kerry O’Donnelly. Their start-up helps agribusinesses to detect dangerous pathogens early, potentially saving billions of dollars.

Another Althea-Imperial participant, Clementine Chambon, founded a renewable energy start-up which uses crop waste to produce clean, reliable and affordable electricity in rural India.

Speaking at last year’s final, Professor Alice Gast said: “If you give women an opportunity, they seize it. Women by their very nature are entrepreneurial, they just need the confidence to make the leap into an uncertain future and pursue their idea.

“Althea-Imperial women do not just produce a product in search of a market. They produce a solution to a problem."

Find out more about the Althea-Imperial programme