The Cambridge Research Institute young entrepreneurs team are runners-up in the recent 2007 Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Biotechnology YES) competition.

Although the team placed second in the overall competition, they were awarded the Best Consideration of IP Strategy prize and Best Plant Science Business Plan prize; the prizes were sponsored by Eric Potter Clarkson and Syngenta respectively.

The scheme organised by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI), is run as an annual competition and provides training in entrepreneurship and commercial awarenes for young bioscientists. The competition involves developing and presenting a scientifically based business plan in a Dragons' Den™-style pitch.

The team, comprising Sarah Dietz (from the Carroll Group), Monika Golinski (from the Griffiths Group), Sarah Moffatt (from the Genomics core facility), Hayley Thirkettle and Hayley Whitaker (both from the Neal Group), won the prizes with their presentation of their hypothetical company Algatech which developed and sold GreenFOOT carbon absorbing algae filters for vehicle exhausts.

The team beat 57 other teams across the country to be one of the eight teams in the finals held in London on 3 December 2007. The overall prize was won by a team from the University of Cambridge with their blood chemistry hand-held analysis device which harnesses fluorescing quantum dots.