We are delighted to announce that a student team from the School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin are the winners of the national Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E). The team will now go forward to compete at European level in September and will be further developing their prototype, undertaking further research in developing their business plans in using an integrated anaerobic digestion and microalgae process.
‘The BISC-E competition has been an amazing experience,’ said Team Captain, Fangting Bai, ‘it has helped us focus our ideas and have an end goal in sight. Thank you to all who have been involved – the steering group, the judging panel for their suggestions and David from IKC3 for the enterprise support sessions and advice. We are looking forward to the European finals in September.’
Placing a close second was a student team from the University of Limerick, led by Team Captain, Clotilde Techoueyres. ‘BISC-E has been a great opportunity to take ideas from the lab, come together as a team to refine those ideas and consider how we might develop this into a business opportunity. We are grateful for the support from IKC3 in the lead up to the finals and for the advice from the judges which we will take forward in the next stage of our planning.’
‘We are delighted for the winning teams,’ says Dr. Helena McMahon, Director of IKC3 at Munster Technological University (MTU), ‘as the National Co-ordinators for the competition we are very aware of the very high standard that is required to reach this point. I wish them the best of luck in taking their ideas forward.’
The national finals were hosted by Maynooth University (MU). The judging panel included Dr Máire Nic an Bhaird and Dr Laoise Ní Chléirigh from MU, Dr Tracey O’Connor, MTU, Tom Rowan, Managing Director of Rowan, and Laura Broomfield from The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.
BISC-E encourages students to explore the emerging bio-based work field and develop new bio-based products or process. Ireland’s Knowledge Centre for Carbon, Climate and Community Action (IKC3) are the National Co-ordinators for the annual BISC-E competition. The IKC3 project partners are MTU, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. The BISC-E steering committee includes Grace Vaughan from Biorbic, Matthew Halpin from the Department For Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Zoe Rush and David Williamson from IKC3/MTU.
