136 innovators and entrepreneurs selected for Leaders in Innovation Fellowships programme
A total of 136 innovators from 14 countries have been selected to participate in the 2020–21 Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) programme. The LIF programme aims to build the entrepreneurial capacity of individuals to commercialise their innovations that help to address social and economic challenges in their home countries.
The programme will bring a cohort of these innovators together, selected for the excellence and potential of their innovation and their qualities as an applicant. They will benefit from a focused period of training in entrepreneurship as well as access to expert coaches both online and via residential training and networking to help them develop their business plans. In the long term, they will benefit from ongoing support from their national institutions and access to an international network of peer innovators and mentors as they implement their commercialisation plans.
LIF is run by the Royal Academy of Engineering and funded by the UK Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Newton Fund programme. It is delivered in partnership with multiple in-country entrepreneurship and innovation organisations.
The Academy’s Senior Manager of Entrepreneurship for Development, Mahmoda Ali, said: “It is a tremendous achievement for the Academy and each of its in-country partners to have put in place a version of the LIF programme that can be delivered remotely. The impact of LIF continues to grow each year and we are pleased that by supporting these exceptional innovators, we are helping progress towards many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.”
Now in its seventh year, this cohort joins a thriving community of over 1,100 alumni from 17 countries. Together, LIF alumni have raised nearly USD $85,000,000 in follow-on funding for their innovations and created thousands of new jobs, boosting their local economies.
A full list of the 136 Leaders in Innovation Fellows and the national institutions who are the Academy’s partners in the LIF programme can be found here.
Notes for editors
- The Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) programme brings together emerging leaders who have an engineering-based innovation that has the potential to contribute to the social and economic development of their country through commercialisation. The programme provides them with access to high-quality skills training focused on commercialisation, a network of peers in their own country, the UK and around the world, and a rich and varied experience with immediate and long-term benefits for their innovations.
- The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.
Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.
Media enquiries to: Pippa Cox at the Royal Academy of Engineering
Tel. +44 207 766 0745 Email: [email protected]
Responses