Up to 50 PhD students from around Australia competed in the 2017 Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge last week.

The Entrepreneurship Challenge brought together PhD students to brainstorm innovative ideas from concept to delivery in the space of 24 hours.

CPAS PhD student Tara Roberson, who was selected to compete in the challenge, said the aim of the challenge was to design an innovative start-up concept.

The participants worked for over 36 hours without sleep in project teams with advice from coaches and experts to set up a company, from the initial idea to the full business plan.

“The Challenge was a chance to highlight the way skills learnt in a PhD can be used outside of academia and how they can contribute to our economy and society,” Ms Roberson said.

“I worked in a team with students from biomedical engineering, pharmacology, and anatomy and development biology. Our final product ‘Immuno Buddy’ was an on-the-go food allergy test kit.”

The Challenge format was based on the popular sister event in France “24 heures chrono de l’entrepreneuriat”, which has run since 2011.

Other ANU participants included Bethany Ellis, Simon McKenzie, Prithvi Reddy, Jennifer Roberts, Anna Stuparay, and Chad Lee-Stronach.