Following the success of the last two years, The University of East Anglia and the Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR), in partnership with Anglia Innovation Partnership (AIP) (the science park management company of Norwich Research Park), are excited to announce the 2025 ‘Innovation Hothouse Competition, which will showcase the best of innovation in science and technology across the Norwich Research Park.
▪Do you have research that has the potential to break new ground, create an impact and set up a product or service? Or are you thinking of setting up a company?
▪Are you an early-stage startup already wanting to gain prominence and investment and need a mentor?
▪Do you want to have access to angel investors, VCs, legal advisors, multi-national companies, and those who have connections to these groups of people?
If the answer is YES to any of these, then please apply to the 2025 ‘Innovation Hothouse’ Competition!
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 27/6/25 at 17.00
The competition will take place on the 25th of November as part of AIP’s series of Norwich Research Park’s showcase events, ‘Enterprise Tuesday’, held at the John Innes Conference Centre. This event brings together a diverse community of academics, investors and companies.
An agreed number of selected finalists will have the opportunity to deliver a quick-fire 5-minute pitch to showcase their innovative research ideas and their products or services to fellow researchers, investors, grant funders and multinational companies from the region. After each presentation, there will be questions from the judging panel and the audience.
The winner and two runner ups (to be decided by a panel of esteemed judges) will receive cash prizes of £500, £250 and £150 respectively, awarded by the Royal Society EiR and the UEA. All finalists will also receive £100 cash each, kindly donated by Richard Flavell. There is also a range of other non-cash prizes and benefits (see below).
New for this year! We are pleased to announce an additional award, the Rising Star Award, for a finalist who is at a very early stage who demonstrates exciting innovation in their research/venture and is likely to succeed! The Rising Star Award will win £150 in addition they will receive dedicated 121 mentoring with James Thomas, an experienced angel investor.
The winners will be decided by a panel of esteemed judges including Prof Sheng Qi, Roz Bird, Zickie Lim, Dr Jerry Wu, Faye Holland and James Thomas.
Entries can be either individuals or teams, but only a maximum number of two people from each entry can pitch on the day!
All finalists will also receive the following benefits:
•Mentoring by Michael Grange, Founder & CEO of Parker Veese before the Innovation Hothouse Day
•An investment ready workshop delivered by experts from the Mills and Reeve team and an opportunity to have a 15-minute individual session with a legal expert
•A workshop delivered by Innovate UK Business Growth on how to pitch
•All finalists will be able to have a ticket for Cambridge Tech Week 2026
•All finalists will be nominated/listed on #21towatch and the three winners will automatically be shortlisted for #21towatch
•Introduction to appropriate people and companies, where possible (via your mentor)
•A chance to network with a wide group of companies and investors
•All winners (other than the Rising Star Award) will receive a one-year virtual tenancy from
Norwich Research Park subject to the establishment of a company and standard HMRC checks. Existing virtual tenants will receive a marketing support package instead, including advice, promotional opportunities and more.
Eligibility (Note: This is a UEA-run competition that is open to all Norwich Research Park-wide applicants including those within institutes, NNUH and park-based businesses. Applications with strong collaboration with UEA are strongly encouraged):
•Undergraduate and PGR students
•Research or Technical Staff
•Early career researchers
•Academic spin-outs / early-stage start-ups (must not be more than 5 years old and must have less than 10 employees)
•Companies based on Norwich Research Park (including virtual tenants)
Entries are welcome from anyone with a business idea or early- stage business on the Norwich Research Park campus. If you have submitted an application in the past two years you can apply again. Please note that this year applications will also be accepted from previous years’ finalists, with the exception of any of our previous winners from 2023 and 2024.
Group Leaders are not eligible, but we strongly encourage their research groups to represent their ideas.
Find out more about being part of the competition and its benefits in our online videos.
For any queries, please email alexia.mlynarska@www.norwichresearchpark.com
Sponsored and Supported by:
