Routes from the Centre for Entrepreneurship
Competitions
Venture competition
Venture competition – currently closed
All students, staff, and recent graduates can enter this exciting competition for new business ideas. The final event sees shortlisted participants pitch their ideas to a public audience and judging panel. Prizes are awarded across a range of externally sponsored categories, reflecting the diverse interests and sectors of our business community (Venture 2025 prize fund was £65,000). Winners are offered a place on Elevator’s Dundee accelerator programme for further training.
Applications for Venture 2026 will open later in the year.
Find out more about the Venture competition
Scottish Edge
Scottish EDGE is Scotland's biggest business funding competition, offering grants and loans from £10,000 to £100,000 to help grow your startup, social enterprise or charity. Scottish EDGE consists of four categories:
- Scottish EDGE
- Young EDGE
- Wild Card EDGE
- Social Enterprise EDGE
As you progress through the stages of the Scottish EDGE competition, the competition standard and level of expectation can often increase.
Converge challenge
Whether you’re a student, recent graduate, or academic, Converge can provide you with the skills, support, guidance, and funding to springboard your big idea from concept to reality.
Training
Elevator Accelerator
This is a fully funded course which teaches staff and students the key points in starting up a business. It lasts for 8 weeks and focuses on the core skills to give you a competitive edge, including:
- ideation
- customer discovery
- growth strategies
- branding and marketing
- investment
- sales
Elevator - Academic Accelerator
Support
Business Gateway
Business Gateway offers all round support, whatever stage your business is at. They give advice, support and training spanning across areas such as:
- market reports
- human resources
- Finance and Digital Boost
Visit the Business Gateway website
Resources
Innovator Founder
If you are a recently graduated international student and want to start your own business that is registered as a limited company you will require an innovator founder visa. For this visa, you will need to meet various eligibility criteria, and your business idea should be innovative, scalable, and viable. There are currently only 4 endorsing bodies for the Innovator Founder visa.
You can be self-employed under the graduate visa route (Post Study Work Visa). For advice about this option contact the team.
Masterclasses on demand
Masterclasses offer advanced insights into the career journeys of successful entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs, who all have links to the University, are from diverse fields and will share their unique techniques and remarkable stories to help you to see beyond your everyday capabilities.