{"id":78809,"date":"2017-02-09T14:12:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c0019ec392305d1cbb2a1b5f3642b369"},"modified":"2017-02-09T14:12:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T14:12:38","slug":"news-story-women-in-innovation-female-start-ups-get-inspired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=78809","title":{"rendered":"News story: Women in innovation: female start-ups get inspired"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Around 200 female entrepreneurs attended Innovate UK\u2019s networking event on 8 February 2017. The event was designed to help the women &#8211; who all applied to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/women-in-innovation-apply-for-infocus-funding-award\">Women in Innovation competition<\/a> &#8211; to turn their ideas into successful businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Delegates were able to practice pitching their ideas, get advice from innovation experts and network with peers and business leaders. There was also a question and answer session with Innovate UK ambassador Claire Williams, the Deputy Team Principal of Williams F1.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal of Williams F1\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/60884\/Claire_Williams.JPG\"><\/div><figcaption>Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal of Williams F1, answers questions from delegates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dr Ruth McKernan, Chief Executive of Innovate UK said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We want to inspire the next generation of UK entrepreneurs. Every growing business benefits from a mentor to show them the way. It\u2019s especially important that we do this for people from a diverse range of backgrounds who haven\u2019t traditionally participated in Innovate UK competitions but who would greatly benefit from our support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Events like this help give aspiring innovators the tools they need to succeed, whether they\u2019re looking for funding to carry out a feasibility study or want the support of an established partner to take their solution to market.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"inspiring-female-entrepreneurs\">Inspiring female entrepreneurs<\/h2>\n<p>This was the first women-only Innovate UK competition and is part of our new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/women-in-innovation-apply-for-infocus-funding-award\">infocus initiative<\/a> to encourage diversity in innovation. It followed research that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/women-in-innovation-research-reveals-barriers-and-opportunities\">just 1 in 7 Innovate UK funding applications came from women<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The wider economic impact of addressing the gender imbalance is significant. Research suggests that if participation is increased to the same levels as men, women-led SMEs could potentially contribute an incremental \u00a3180 billion gross value added (GVA) to the UK by 2025.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Female entrepreneurs listen to inspiring speeches\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/60887\/Delegates_listen_to_speeches.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Female entrepreneurs listen to inspiring speeches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We continue to work with the 15 competition winners, who each received \u00a350,000 as well as a package of tailored support and business mentoring.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>See the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/570289\/infocus_-_Women_in_Innovation_2016_-_Competition_Results.pdf\">infocus \u2018women in innovation\u2019 competition winners<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Register to attend other <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/ktn-uk.co.uk\/events\">business networking events<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Watch the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/ktn.adobeconnect.com\/p5s4shnm6pr\/?launcher=false&amp;fcsContent=true&amp;pbMode=normal\">event recording<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Connect with partners through the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/ktn-uk.co.uk\/\">Knowledge Transfer Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>See what other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/innovation-grants-for-business-apply-for-funding#open-funding-competitions\">funding opportunities<\/a> are available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women-only networking event held as part of our infocus campaign to inspire and empower a diverse base of innovators in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}