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Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise

Student Innovation Challenge

Student Innovation Challenge

The Student Innovation Challenge will see you working in a small group of three to five students where you will need to solve a business challenge provided by your client. Working together, you will need to research the issue and report back to the client, providing recommendations of creative solutions to the problem.

You can find a number of resources to help you through the various stages of the application process on our UoS Career Hub. Click on the button below for more information.

UoS Career Hub

What previous participants have said in our Student Innovation Challenge:

 'Most amazing experience so far at University of Southampton.'

 'The prize was the least valuable thing that we received.'

 'The student innovation challenge was a great experience to develop research skills and interact with real clients to give you an insight into real world project scenarios.'

 See what students and clients have said about taking part in the Student Innovation Challenge. 

The Innovation Challenge is an intensive, four-day project where you will be working in a small group of three to five students solving a business challenge, provided by top employers. Working together you will develop your research, communication and presentation skills, providing creative solutions to your business problem.

The Innovation Challenge is open to students from any degree discipline and runs every summer and Easter, giving you a chance of winning great prizes!

Please read our student handbook for more information. 

Your participation in a project will involve the following:

  • The completion of a mandatory training module followed by a meeting with the work experience team ahead of your project commencing
  • Assignment to a team, who you will meet at the initial meeting with the work experience team
  • An initial meeting with your client to discuss their business needs
  • Support throughout the challenge will be available from your client and Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise
  • Work to be carried out on the challenge for the duration of three days – all team members to play an active role in the challenge across all three days
  • Submit a short business report offering an overview of your innovative solutions
  • On day four present your findings to your client and members of Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise as well as presenting to the other existing teams at the end of the three days
  • You will then be awarded 1st, 2nd or 3rd place by your client, based on your ideas and presentation
  • The challenge duration is four days and requires full commitment from every participant. All meetings with your team, client and Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise will be held physically within the four days, including your final presentation

Please register your interest now to receive updates about the Innovation Challenges. 

  • The Innovation Challenge is exclusive to University of Southampton students.
  • Students on any degree discipline can take part, but please ensure the challenge does not interfere with your academic workload.

Please note: Being appointed onto the Innovation Challenge is a competitive process and unfortunately, not everyone is successful. When selecting students to participate in the programme we take into consideration the quality of the student application in terms of how well questions have been answered, attention to detail and accuracy. Additionally, in order to ensure a meaningful experience for our students and clients, we seek to appoint interdisciplinary teams with a mix of skillsets, diversity of degree subject, year group and nationality.

These projects are a fantastic way to build your awareness of business problems and gain an insight into how to build a professional network while developing skills that include:

o Confidence

o Time management

o Report writing

o Critical thinking

o Problem solving

o Market research

o Presentation

o Commercial Awareness

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