A “unique” new partnership has been created to help budding entrepreneurs start up and bring their products to the marketplace.
The Cranfield School of Management and the Royal College of Art (RCA) have launched a collaboration in which RCA students showcase their inventions to their Cranfield counterparts.
Cranfield MBA students will then take forward the inventions as business propositions with the ultimate aim of launching them onto the market.
The scheme is already looking to develop six new products designed by RAC students, including self heating crockery, an easy to open clip for backpacks and a cutlery device which combines a fork, knife and spoon.
Joanna Ivison, manager of the RCA’s Innovation Unit, said that she was very excited about the collaboration.
“Our designers have produced some great new products and are delighted to have the opportunity to add commercial expertise to the research into user issues and manufacturing constraints they have already carried out.
“Marrying Cranfield MBAs’ world-class business acumen with RCA designers’ dynamic creativity can only produce some truly innovative results,” she said.
David Molian, of Cranfield, said that the college has a growing track record of building successful entrepreneurial businesses.
“We attract a certain type of MBA student and I think that is partly what also attracted the Royal College of Art.
“The projects the Royal College of Art presented are diverse and exciting and I have every faith that our MBA students will be able to develop many, if not all, into successful business opportunities,” he said.
