Member Article

Budding digital entrepreneurs pointed to fellowship grants

Budding digital entrepreneurs are being encouraged to apply for the next round of DigitalCity Innovation fellowships.

The fellowships offers a business support grant of £4,000 to be used for living expenses while business ideas are developed over a six month period.

DigitalCity offer their pool of industry experts to mentor fellows over four days, and provide workshops, seminars and networking events.

Cheryl Evans, project manager for DCI, said: “We’re looking for individual people and teams who have an original digital project idea, who live in the North East of England and are graduates.

“DCI fellowships are renowned for being the launch pad of some of the most successful digital companies in the region.

“This year we are also particularly looking to encourage those with engineering, science and technology backgrounds to apply and launch even more new companies in the North East.”

Michael Dunn, managing director of Gospelware, an app design and development studio, was granted a DCI fellowship in 2010, after being pointed in the right direction by a clued-up careers advisor.

He said: “I came from the gaming industry and had been made redundant twice in the space of a few months, but I’d always wanted to run my own business.

“I’m not sure what I was expecting exactly from the fellowship but it far exceeded anything I might have thought.

“My living expenses were paid for a couple of months while I concentrated on learning as much of the business side of things as I needed. I went in as a programmer and went out with the knowledge to set up a business.”

The deadline for applications is September 10, and DigitalCity are happy to discuss any business ideas with potential applicants. Those interested can get in touch via this link, or by calling 01642 384334.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .