Venture Workshop – “People, Plastic and our Planet: Venturing for Solutions”
Plastic pollution has become recognised as one of the top issues threatening the health of our oceans and the ecosystem services they provide to mankind. Latest finding shows that even the “world’s last wilderness’, Antarctica, is contaminated with microplastic waste and persistent hazardous chemicals as the researchers discover that microplastics and chemicals were present in the water and snow samples taken in the Antarctic. Creative thinking informed by sound environmental evidence is required to stop further plastic escaping into the environment, and to deal with existing plastic pollution. People, Plastics and our Planet offers the unique opportunity for early career researchers and entrepreneurial individuals from the business community to come together to develop and test ideas around solving the challenges that plastics in our environment pose.
The venture school will be a highly interactive/hands-on course delivered over 5 days, where interdisciplinary teams will work together to propose and develop solutions to plastic challenges that they identify as of particular interest. Each team will work towards defining a business model that is suitable to take their idea forward – supported by expert mentors. That could be a business venture, a social venture, an impact project, or a new collaboration.
During the programme, participants will:
- Define a complex problem
- Explore possible solutions and choose the most appropriate one(s)
- Articulate a value proposition
- Identify key partners
- Evaluate routes to market
- Propose a business model
- Design and deliver a winning pitch to secure resources
