Leaders of high-growth engineering enterprises sought for £10,000 training and development grant

It is essential that leaders of high-growth businesses are able to navigate new markets and capitalise on business growth, particularly in the engineering profession where only 27%1 of enterprises in the UK are engineering-related.

TheSME Leaders programme aims to help founders, managing directors and C-suite executivesimprove their leadership acumen to capitalise on growth opportunities.

One of the programme’s alumniDr Cristina Blanco Andujar,Chief Technology Officer at MediSieve, said:

“I was fortunate enough to be accepted onto the 2018 SME Leaders Programme and found it a great opportunity to further enhance the skills that I needed to scale up MediSieve.” 

MediSieve has created a magnetic blood filtration system that has the potential to transform the treatment of blood–borne diseases including sepsis, leukaemia and malaria. Having spunout from University College London in 2015 to commercialise the idea, the company has since raised a total of £2.1M in equity funding and is preparing for its first clinical trials.

Cristina continued:“From my experience, to successfully scale a company you need to have business skills to match. The team at MediSieve is small but we’re growing quickly in numbers and looking to expand into new markets. The SME Leaders Programme has been invaluable in helping me to develop the skills and confidence to manage the team through this next milestone. The 1-2-1 coaching sessions have been especially helpful in this journey. Learning about your leadership style is a fundamental step to transition from an individual contributor to an inspirational leader, which is a key ingredient toscale up.”

Ana Avaliani, Head of Enterprise at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

“The SME Leaders Programme has been running for two years and we have beenpleasedwith the progress our current cohort has made– whether raising funds to grow or entering new markets. The Enterprise Hub exists to provide the skills and support we know are essential in inspiring belief in engineering enterprise. We look forward to receiving more high quality applications for this year.”

Since 2013, the Enterprise Hub has supported over 100 entrepreneurs and SMEs, helping to develop ideas into investable, high-growth companies.

For more information on the SME Leaders programme please visithttps://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/support-for-entrepreneurs/sme-leaders-programme

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Note for Editors

1. How to apply for the SME Leaders programme

Apply by 16.00 BST onMonday 3 June 2019 via the Academy’s online grant system.

Applications must be submitted by the leader (Founder, MD, or C-suite level executive) of the engineering SME, which must be UK based. If you have any questions concerning the application or the online grant system, please contact the Enterprise team at [email protected].

2. Press contact

For further media information please contact the Enterprise Hub press office at Good Relations on [email protected]

3. About the Enterprise Hub

Enterprise Hub – The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub is a national resource for the UK’s most promising engineering entrepreneurs. The Hub forms part of the Academy’s commitment to stimulate excellence and promote creativity and innovation in engineering. The Hub does this by making awards to exemplars of excellence and innovation in engineering who will be the founders and leaders of tomorrow’s high-tech companies. The awards include provision of money-can’t-buy bespoke support and one-to-one mentoring from its Fellowship, which comprises many of the country’s most successful engineers from across academia and industry, including prominent entrepreneurs and business leaders such as Mike Lynch OBE FREng, Sir Robin Saxby FREng, Anne Glover CBE HonFREng and Ian Shott CBE FREng. The Royal Academy of Engineering opened the Taylor Centre – a physical home for the Enterprise Hub with meeting and networking facilities for its Members – in February 2017.

4. About the Royal Academy of Engineering

As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.

We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.

We have three strategic priorities:

• Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses

• Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge

• Position engineering at the heart of society

We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.

Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.