Our 2022 strategy leverages these strengths to enhance staff and student experiences, boosting our city’s economy, and inspiring partner institutions. 22/23 achievements:

• Recognition of enterprise in academic staff workloads, performance, and promotion.
• An explicit aspiration to embed enterprise in all teaching and postgraduate research (PGR) programmes.
• Growth of the annual “Venture” business competition to a record 89 entries with £68,000 in prize funding.
• A successful “Spinout Academy” pilot, offering training and support to 15 staff/researchers.
• Finalising funding for our £40M new Life Sciences Innovation hub building, set to open in Q1/25.
• Leading the creation of “EdenTay.com” – entrepreneurial founders’ community with regional HE partners.
• Our Business School achieved UK Small Business Charter Silver status, and its research helped influence Scottish Government policy on women’s enterprise support.
• Launching the PathforPotential.com podcast – hosted by Mark Beaumont BEM (former rector, and renowned cyclist), and Johanna Basford OBE (graduate illustrator who has sold 30m+ mindfulness colouring books globally), to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. Guests included Fearne Cotton and Deliciously Ella), with one episode focussed on pitching skills, garnering 290k+ views globally.
• Entrepreneurship Week 2023: 885 registered for a programme of 13 events. The week included the annual public lecture delivered by social entrepreneur Alan Mahon (founder of Brewgooder.com a socially focussed B-Corp who invest profits for social good such as providing clean drinking water in Africa) reflecting the university’s social purpose and ongoing work in Africa.

Furthermore, the institution has recently been recognised in the European Triple E Awards as the ‘Innovative and Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2024’ for championing an entrepreneurial culture, with enterprise and engagement standing alongside teaching and research as key pillars of its activity. 

With Enterprise now formalised at the heart of our strategy building on years of consistent success, it clearly demonstrates our effort to embed an entrepreneurial culture across our community, providing joined-up support to help fulfil our shared vision.

What would winning Outstanding Entrepreneurial University mean to you?

Dundee is a post-industrial city that has worked hard to reinvent itself. The University is a key economic driver for prosperity, and we’re involved in many partnerships aimed at transforming the City’s economy – these include being a founding partner of V&A Dundee (Scotland’s Design Museum), the Eden Project Dundee and an active partner in the UK and Scottish Government backed Tay Cities Deal. The University of Dundee recognises its importance to its city region and will continue to design, implement and drive forward its strategy for entrepreneurship whilst ensuring the wider eco-system continues to see tangible benefits both economically and socially.

One of the challenges of being located in a relatively compact city with a population of 150,000 is that at times it can be challenging to amplify the entrepreneurial impact the University is having further afield in the UK and beyond. Due to entrepreneurship being such a part of the University’s core identity, it has been a long-term goal for the institution to be named ‘Outstanding Entrepreneurial University’ in the THE Awards. Therefore, following up the Triple E Awards accolade with a prestigious THE Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the year would fill the University community, and wider Tay Cities region with huge pride and confidence.

Importantly it would provide Dundee with significant exposure and further recognition to allow this important work to continue to grow, cementing ourselves as a renowned beacon of entrepreneurship for the impact we deliver.

Our story will continue to inspire other institutions on their own respective entrepreneurial journeys, demonstrating what can be achieved when a university truly encourages and embraces an entrepreneurial culture throughout its community regardless of its size or location.