Applications open for £30,000 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs
Melanie May | 11 July 2018 | News
Applications are now open for the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs.
The award gives disabled entrepreneurs in the UK the chance to win a top prize of £30,000 for their business, awarded by easyJet founder and philanthropist Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Jointly run by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Leonard Cheshire since 2006, the award recognises the achievements of disabled entrepreneurs who have set up their own company and excel in their chosen business field. Last year saw Hannah Chamberlain win with her mental health app Mental Snapp.
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All forms of entrepreneurship and planned business activity in the UK, including start-ups, social enterprise or up and running businesses, which are at least 50% owned by disabled people, are eligible to apply.
Applications close on 1 October. The winner will receive their grand prize at an awards ceremony on 14 November. Four runners up will also receive prizes of £10,000 each.
Criteria for entry
- The award is open to disabled applicants operating in the UK only. The Stelios Award uses the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability, which also includes long-term mental and physical health conditions.
- The award is open to registered and not-yet-registered companies, charities and social enterprises
- To be eligible, a disabled entrepreneur must own at least 50 per cent of the company
- The company must be at most seven years old
- The applicant must have an active online presence
- Past winners and/or applicants are welcome to re-apply.
Four new international judges with experience in a range of industries have been announced to join the judging panel for this year’s awards.
They are Hannah Chamberlain, last year’s Stelios Award winner and founder of Mental Snapp, an app to help actively manage mental health using private video diaries, Dr. Caroline Casey, an award winning social entrepreneur, international speaker and leading authority on diversity and inclusion, Stas Strach, an international entrepreneur and business leader with over 25 years experience in the consumer electronics industry, and Hardeep Rai, Founder and Managing Director of Kaleidoscope Investments; an organisation that invests, supports and empowers disabled people to become successful entrepreneurs.
Full details on eligibility and an application form are available from the Leonard Cheshire site.
More Stelios fundraising
- EasyJet founder pleges half of his fortune to charity (12 June 2017)
- Britain’s youngest self-made billionaire joins the Giving Pledge (29 May 2019)
- EasyJet passengers first to experience Unicef’s virtual reality film at 30,000 feet (28 October 2016)
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.