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University of Sheffield Team Wins 2017 Ford UK Innovation Challenge

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2017 Ford UK Innovation Challenge

Ford Motor Company this week announced the winner of its 2017 Ford UK Innovation Challenge, with the University of Sheffield taking the top prize with its “Motion” project. The Ford UK Innovation Challenge is part of the Ford College Community Challenge, which encourages students to develop sustainable solutions for their communities and get a head start on getting in touch with the entrepreneurial spirit.

The 2017 Ford UK Innovation Challenge was open to university teams formed as part of Enactus, which operates in nearly five dozen universities throughout the UK and reaches approximately 3,000 students on an annual basis.

Said Andy Barratt, Ford of Britain Chairman and Managing Director, “We are delighted to be able to support these exceptional young innovators as they provide creative and sustainable solutions to real-world community issues. Enactus gives these students a fantastic platform to demonstrate their abilities and our Ford Fund award will support the project implementation.”


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This year’s winners from University of Sheffield won the top prize of £25,000 for its development of “Motion,” described as “a social enterprise that designs and delivers chair-based exercise sessions for the elderly with the intent of increasing physical mobility, reducing social isolation, and improving the lives of participants while also providing employment for locally vulnerable people.”

“All the teams would have been worthy winners but the Motion project really stood out as a transformational idea that impacts lives and contributes towards physical, social, and economic mobility,” said Jim Vella, President, Ford Motor Company Fund.

Vella noted that while the team from U of Sheffield was victorious, the efforts of the second- and third-place runners-up would not go unrecognized or unrewarded.

“We were so impressed with all the projects, however, that we are also going to give the University of Edinburgh and the University of Nottingham teams a £5,000 award.”


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