The festival celebrates the wealth of innovations, new products and services which are helping Leicestershire businesses thrive and expand.

The University will be hosting three online events during the festival:

Meet the founders – Wednesday 16 February , 12.30pm

Hear from serial cyber business entrepreneur David Chan (eCora) and alumnus Tom Jelliffe, who is developing the world’s most durable earbud technology (Tzuka) with the support of LU Inc., º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ’s business incubator for graduates, academic spinouts and external founders with innovative ideas. These start-up founders will share the highs and lows of building a business during the pandemic.

Accelerator Q&A – Monday 21 February 2022, 2pm

Find out about the University’s Business Start-up Accelerator Programme which provides training, resources and connections to help pre and early-stage businesses to establish, grow and succeed. The Programme is completely free and open to all. This informal drop-in session is hosted by the LU Inc. team.

Collaborating to bring Sustainable Innovation to Packaging – Tuesday 22 February 2022, 2pm

Find out how Aquapak Polymers Ltd and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ are using funding from the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme to develop environmentally friendly polymers, that will enable recyclability of packaging. KTP helps businesses to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance by accessing the knowledge and skills locked up inside universities.

Contributors to the Midlands Engine Hydrogen Technologies Strategy that are based on LUSEP, the University’s science and enterprise park, are two of the keynote speakers at the launch event How local businesses have used innovation successfully on their journey to net-zero at King Power Stadium on Monday 14 February:

• Dennis Hayter, Vice-President of Business Development at Intelligent Energy
  Intelligent Energy, the leading UK developer and a global supplier of hydrogen fuel cell technology, can be traced back to a breakthrough at the University, involving automotive engineering and Chemistry researchers.
• Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex 
  Cenex focuses on low-emission transport and associated energy infrastructure and operates as an independent, not-for-profit research technology organisation (RTO) and consultancy, specialising in project delivery, innovation support and market development.

With its record nominations in the LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards, the University’s academic spinouts, graduate startups and campus partner organisations, all of whom are based at LUSEP, will be out in force on Thursday 24 February 2022. The Awards, which are an excellent networking opportunity, will be held at King Power Stadium, with tickets available to all.