Shell Ideas360 comes to students!

Shell Ideas360

Shell Ideas360 is an international competition open to all students which aims to produce the leading ideas to tackle the global energy, food and water issues of today. Students are invited to develop game changing ideas with an emphasis on innovative ideas which can be implemented to produce real and profitable investment. The prize for this competition consists of a National Geographic Expedition, where you will be exploring some of the most fascinating places in the world. Shell hopes to use its resources to help change the world by investing in ideas produced by students. All participants will keep the intellectual property behind their ideas. The best ideas also have the chance to be invested in by the Shell Gamechanger programme, which has invested over $300m to date. Are you ready to solve the problem, tackle the food security nexus and provide fresh water globally? With the world population and daily energy usage per person ever increasing, can you find a solution? Thijs Jurgens, Shell Vice President for Innovation said: “As a global leader in energy and innovation, we aspire to drive progress in the development of a better energy system. The future of energy cannot be seen as separate from that of food and water, and tackling the pressures on these vital resources cannot be achieved alone. We recognize that innovation starts with ideas, and believe that great ideas can be conceived by anyone at any time. However, many great ideas never get off the ground, for any of a number of reasons. At Shell, we want to make sure that promising ideas are nurtured and supported. What better place to start than at university? And what better talent to support than students?”

How to enter

Once you have an idea, you can enter as an individual or as part of a team (max 3 people per team). You are also required to have a member of the university academic staff to support your application. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to a virtual workspace filled with a collection of inspiring videos, articles and advice to spark your creative thinking and help your idea take shape. Ideas need to be submitted by December 16th 2013. After review by Shell, the top 100 ideas from all students will be selected to proceed to the next stage. In this stage you will be given a Shell mentor to help you develop your idea, and build on skills and industry knowledge. From this you will be required to write a detailed report followed by a 3-minute video presentation. Only 5 teams make it to the final round and this takes place in the Netherlands.

Entrepreneurship

An Imperial student has done it before. Alex Schey studied mechanical engineering at Imperial and went on to set up Vantage power. Straight after university, he acquired £700,000 sponsorship to build and design an electric car, which he drove down the Pan-American Highway (over 26,000km). He has gone on to develop a revolutionary hybrid drivetrain designed to retrofit existing double-decker buses to reduce fuel consumption by 40%.

If you feel like taking on this energy, water and food challenge, submit your idea today!