Are you an academic who has recently worked on a successful business project or collaboration? Kent Innovation & Enterprise are calling for applicants to enter their names for the prestigious Innovation Awards.

The awards will recognise and celebrate excellence in innovation and enterprise at the University of Kent and showcase our successful collaborations with partner businesses and organisations.

We will be accepting applications for six categories:

• Early Career Researcher Enterprise Award
• Impact Through Knowledge Exchange Award
• ICE (Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise) Award
• Most Innovative Staff Award
• External Innovation Champion(s)
• Student Knowledge Exchange

Closing date is Monday 11 April 2016 before midnight. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to the ICE Showcase Event on Thursday 28 April 2016 at Woolf College on Canterbury Campus where the awards ceremony will take place.

Winners will be announced and presented with prizes by Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Innovation & Research, Professor Philippe De Wilde.

For more information and to download an application form, please visit the Innovation Awards webpage. For any questions or queries please contact Nerissa on 01227 816032 or email enterprise@kent.ac.uk.

The next guest in the University’s In Conversation series will be the British Novelist, Louis de Bernieres on 8 March.

The event will take place at 18.45 in the Woolf Lecture Theatre on the University’s Canterbury campus. It is free to attend and open to all.

Hosted by the University’s Chancellor Gavin Esler, In Conversation events are a relaxed and informal discussion between the guest and the Chancellor, with audience participation encouraged. Each event concludes with a Question and Answer session but the conversation can be joined on Twitter beforehand using #GavinAsks.

Louis de Bernieres published his first novel in 1990. Since then he has become well known internationally as a writer, with Captain Corelli’s Mandolin winning the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Novel in 1994. His sixth novel, the acclaimed Birds Without Wings, came out in 2004; followed by A Partisan’s Daughter which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. He has also written Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village, Imagining Alexandria: Poems in Memory of Constantinos Cavafis and his major novel, The Dust That Falls From Dreams. His new collection of poems, OF LOVE AND DESIRE, is out now.

After the talk, there will be a ticketed High Table Dinner with Louis de Bernieres and the Chancellor with tickets priced at £45.00 per person. Money raised from the sale of tickets for this part of the event will go towards the Kent Opportunity Fund. Find out more on the In Conversation webpages.

The final guest in this year’s In Conversation series will be Robert Wyatt.

Economics alumnus Aniq Ahmed (Eliot 2008) has been commended for his ardent support of Kent students as a mentor through e-Mentoring platform KEW-NET when he was named ‘Star Mentor’ at the end of February.

Aniq, who is currently working on building treasury capabilities for a specialist lender and previously was Banking and Capital Markets Manager at global consultancy firm Deloitte, signed up to take part in June 2014, and has since offered professional advice and guidance to three students from the School of Economics, Kent Business School and the School of Physical Sciences, one of whom may be joining Deloitte for an internship this summer.

350 alumni from across the world have signed up to KEW-NET so far, sharing advice and experience with the 500+ current students registered. All users of the system can be both a mentee and a mentor and can offer a multitude of services from CV and interview advice to work-based opportunities. As all interactions are hosted through the platform, getting in touch is simple and secure.

Find out more about Aniq’s experience and the e-Mentoring scheme on the alumni blog.

In September 2016 an awesome new GK Unions Student Hub opens on the Medway campus. Some tours of the new Student Hub building have been arranged for both students and University and Student Union staff – so everyone can find out more about the Student Hub building and see how far construction work has come.

Student Hub tour dates are as follows:

• 6 April at 14.00
• 13 April at 14.00
• 20 April at 14.00
• 27 April at 14.00

If you would like to go on a tour of the hub

Book your place on a tour of the Student Hub via GK Unions reception email gkunionsreception@gkunions.co.uk  You will need to let reception know your name, whether you are a student or staff and what date you would like to do the tour. Please note that tours are limited to 8 a maximum people per tour and they will start at 14.00 in North Road Outside the Student Hub. It is estimated that tours will take 30 minutes.

If you have any queries about the tours please contact GK Unions reception.