Registration opens for Jisc’s Summer of Student Innovation 2014

28th February 2014

Students offered £5k grants for innovative ideas to improve education, research and student life.

Jisc, the UK’s expert on digital technologies for education and research, has today opened registration for this year’s Summer of Student Innovation. The competition will offer digitally savvy further and higher education (FE and HE) students the chance to create technology solutions that could change the education landscape forever.

The project recognises the importance of giving students a voice in the way they are taught, learn and live whilst studying. It aims to develop students’ creative design, research, entrepreneurial and project management skills. 

Successful entrants will receive a £5,000 grant from Jisc to transform their ideas into prototypes and gain a ‘feel’ for their product or service. The selected students will also receive user feedback so that missing or difficult functionality can be easily identified and students can go on to develop better solutions that will potentially be adopted by universities, colleges and learning providers across the UK.

The Summer of Student Innovation is a Jisc co-design programme with Research Libraries UK (RLUK); Russell Universities Group of IT Directors (RUGIT); Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL); Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) and Association for Learning Technology (ALT).

Sharing why RUGIT decided to be a co-design partner, John Shemilt, director of IT at Imperial College London said: “It may sound like an obvious answer, but those most likely to know what students want are students themselves. Giving our bright generation of young people full credit for their ideas and an ongoing role in their development will improve student satisfaction and engagement and potentially uncover the entrepreneurs of the future.”

To enter, students must submit a two to five minute video pitch on the Jisc Elevator website alongside a short summary and a 300-500 word description which includes details on the benefits of their idea and its impact on research and education. To be considered for funding, entrants must hit a target of 500 votes before 30 May 2014. Voting is open to everyone but votes must come from 15 different FE and HE institutions.

The successful entrants will be announced in July and given opportunities to join networking workshops with fellow students and experts to further their ideas. Volunteer education organisations will trial the technology developed and those products that are successful will be provided to other interested parties through sustainable routes.

The winners’ ideas will be showcased later this year to FE and HE IT directors, learning technologists, librarians and commercial companies, offering them the chance to learn more about the benefits of these newly developed technologies.  

Commenting on this year’s Summer of Student Innovation, Andrew McGregor, deputy chief innovation officer at Jisc said: “Technological developments should not only come from academics, college and university managers and organisations operating in the education sector but from the ground up, enabling an internal and needs-led perspective."

After the success of last year’s Summer of Student Innovation, we’re sure this year will be even bigger and better. We look forward to receiving more creative ideas in different areas to support young people in improving the way they and their classmates interact with technology in their education.”

The deadline to apply for the Jisc Summer of Student Innovation is 30 May 2014.
To submit entries, and to read the terms and conditions visit the Jisc Elevator website.

Join the conversation on Twitter now using #studentideas.