Launching the 2025/26 QES Prize Competition

The President, Dame Menna Rawlings, and the Queens’ Entrepreneurship Society (QES) Committee were delighted to welcome alumni and students to the President’s Lodge last week for the launch of the 2025/26 QES Prize Competition.

The event was a celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation at Queens’, enabling enterprising students to exchange ideas with alumni who have founded and scaled successful businesses. The evening featured addresses from the President and Prof. Clare Byrant, progress updates from four previous QES Prize Competition winners, and concluded with the announcement that this year’s competition is officially open!

The QES Prize Competition, now in its fourth year, is an opportunity for students to pitch their business idea. If successful, students receive funding and mentoring to help them turn their idea into a viable venture. The competition is open to all University of Cambridge students who are registered for the current academic year. Teams can be between one and five members. If you are a student who is interested in entering, please visit the QES website to find out more. Alternatively, reach out to QESinfo@queens.cam.ac.uk for additional information.

Thanks to the generous support of our alumni, there are two prizes – each totalling £5,000 – to be awarded to students with promising business ideas, as judged by our panel of experts.

This year’s prizes are sponsored by Dr Richard Hargreaves (1964) and Dr John Cassidy (2014). The QES Steve Jobs Prize, named by Dr Hargreaves, has been part of the competition since its inception. The QES Professor J. H. Barber Prize is a new prize this year and is named in memory of Dr Cassidy’s late grandfather, who was a great inspiration to him. We are very grateful to both sponsors for their support.

If you are an alum who is interested in finding out how you can get involved in supporting this exciting initiative, whether that be by providing mentorship or financial support, please reach out to the Alumni & Development Office by emailing development@queens.cam.ac.uk.