University to pioneer The Duke of York and will-i-am iDEA project
HRH The Duke of York and will.i.am
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 14:40:00 BST
“...students are highly creative and a lot of the best ideas come from young people...”
HIS Royal Highness The Duke of York, KG, and U.S. rap star will.i.am have teamed up to support a major new awards scheme for young digital entrepreneurs ... and the University of Huddersfield is one of the founding partners in the project.
As a result, the University and the Los Angeles-based i.am.angel foundation, created by will.i.am in 2009, are investigating opportunities for U.S. students to come to Huddersfield. Dr Rupert Ward (pictured below left), the University’s Head of Informatics, is to visit LA in the autumn to see the work of the foundation at first hand.
The new UK awards scheme is named iDEA, devised by the Nominet Trust, which provides social funding for digital enterprises. It has worked closely with the His Royal Highness, a patron of the University of Huddersfield, which is home to The Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Centre.
When rapper will.i.am, who stars in BBC show The Voice, heard about the scheme, he was keen to lend his support and has appeared on television with The Duke of York, explaining its goals. iDEA – which stands for Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award – is for ambitious 16- to 25-year-olds in the UK who have ingenious business plans in the digital field. It is hoped that over the course of five years, one million young people will take part.
Every year, a longlist of 100 finalists will be drawn up and their ideas for digital enterprise will be further refined. Then a final shortlist of 20 will be announced and the young entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas to a panel of experts. Three winners will be awarded £15,000 to develop their plans.
Digital entrepreneurship degree
Dr Rupert Ward represented the University of Huddersfield at a special launch for iDEA, held at London’s Barbican Centre, with will.i.am and The Duke of York celebrating the work of young people with creative digital ideas. The event was held in tandem with The Prince’s Trust.
“iDEA is going to be really good scheme,” said Dr Ward. “A lot of the best ideas come from young people. Students are highly creative and have not been too constrained by life and society. They will question things differently. Some of the ideas coming from students at the Barbican event were phenomenal and really well thought out.”
The University of Huddersfield has become a pioneering partner in the iDEA project and will support it via local schools and colleges, said Dr Ward. A digital entrepreneurship degree is currently being developed at the University, which already offers popular courses in fields such as computer games design and programming and many other creative arts. It also has a highly successful work placement programme and the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, which offers facilities to student entrepreneurs.
These factors will play their part when Dr Ward goes to Los Angeles in October, in order to witness the work of the i.am.angel foundation, launched to help provide college scholarships and other assistance to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We will look at setting up a programme, so that students could come to study with us in Huddersfield,” said Dr Ward.
