Clare Hall held its inaugural Entrepreneurship Prize competition on 13th May 2025, with three finalist teams pitching for a £5000 award kindly sponsored by our Associate and serial biotech entrepreneur, Dr Mike Trower. The competition saw a strong response from the College community, with applications spanning across the tech, biotech, digital health, wellness, social enterprise and digital humanities sectors.

The three finalist teams included:

LiFETIME, represented at the finals by PhD students Eleni Papafilippou and Nicolas Spiesshofer: the team is developing low-cost, open-source rapid testing technology for lithium-ion battery cell diagnostics.

Clade, represented at the finals by MPhil (Bioscience Enterprise) students Dominic Johnson and David Yacoub: the team is developing a precision post-biotic to safely and effectively remove toxic micro and nanoplastics and their chemical additives from the human body.

eScent, represented at the finals by founder Dr Jenny Tillotson and MBA student Dr Sarah Hardison: the team is developing Scent Bubble^(R), a patented wearable device that delivers app-paired personalised fragrances, triggered by environmental, contextual and biometric data.

The pitches were followed by a reception and dinner in the Richard Eden Suite, which brought together a range of people from the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. This included representatives from investor groups, exited founders and senior executives across the tech, biotech and med-tech sectors, as well as Clare Hall leadership and members involved in the innovation ecosystem. During the dinner, the LiFETIME team was announced as the winner of the first Clare Hall Entrepreneurship Prize, and we look forward to seeing their progress over the coming months.

Finalist teams and their full team members

LiFETIME: Nicolas Spiesshofer (Clare Hall); Robert Petrie; Melissa Watt; Jasper Ward-Berry; Eleni Papafilippou 

Clade: Dominic Johnson (Clare Hall); David Yacoub; Lukas Rabl; Arther Knowles

eScent: Jenny Tillotson; Sarah Hardison (Clare Hall); Stephen Tunnicliffe Wilson