Based around the HQ recording studio in Leicester, HQ Familia is a creative collective that gathers creatives from a range of different disciplines to bring ambitious projects to fruition. Working as a collective, the HQ Familia team is able to approach projects in a flexible, agile way - swapping skills and resources to meet the needs of each project perfectly. Together the collective has helped create several independent businesses - for example a community interest company that helps develop videography skills in the community. In doing so, HQ Familia works to build a healthy creative economy in Leicester.

Moti Me is a product designed to facilitate at-home physiotherapy for children - ensuring they can get the full benefit of these activities. Moti Me is also designed to be inclusive of children with disabilities - for whom physiotherapy is a vital part of daily life. Physiotherapy sessions can often be time consuming and costly - Moti Me provides an easy, home-based source of physiotherapy, with an interactive mat and app that can be used to track a child’s progress. As such, Moti Me is able to help improve outcomes for early development and disabled children.

Mouseskins.GG is a company that provides vinyl wrap skins for computer mice - providing a range of unique designs while also improving performance. Mouseskins’ wraps are able to fit a range of complex shapes and curves, making them a versatile fit for different mice. The wraps are also designed to have advantages such as better grip, sweat wicking, and self-healing membranes - allowing for comfort, durability, and better performance.

Founded in 2005, Millitec is a business that manufactures cutting-edge machines and equipment for the food industry, including automated machinery. In 2019 Millitec entered into a partnership with Loughborough University, aimed at the creation of an automated sandwich making machine. Over 24 months, the team was able to develop the I-Gene - an automated robot able to recognise, track and manipulate ingredients with speed, efficiency and accuracy. The I-Gene is capable of making 750,000 sandwiches a day - alleviating industry staff shortages and putting Millitec at the cutting edge of production.

Vale Microgreens is a company dedicated to improving people’s daily diet and increasing the levels of nutrition that they get. The business produces microgreen powder designed to provide a nutritional boost - offering these microgreens as capsules, raw powder, and even selling grow your own kits. Vale Microgreens uses vertical farming practices to avoid the need to use chemicals during the growing process - freeze drying the microgreens so as to retain their nutritional value for years. In providing this product, Vale Microgreens is able to help people improve nutrition quickly and easily.

Zayndu Limited works to improve the health of seeds as well as their yield, through the use of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Zayndu is constantly working to innovate in how it cultivates crops - for example using activated air to improve a seed’s health and yield. Zayndu is also working to tackle the risk that seed contamination with disease can pose to crops, and improve the flavour, nutritional content and diversity of crops that are produced through CEA. Zayndu is also working to improve the plants’ ability to handle climate-related stresses - which could prove useful for open field crops alongside CEA ones.

ExpHand Prosthetics is a business that works to provide children with life-changing upper-limb prosthetics. 3D printed, these prosthetics are less costly to produce than those of ExpHand’s competitors, while still being of impeccable quality. While many prosthetic limbs require multiple fittings and trips to specialists, ExpHand’s prosthetics are capable of being fitted at home, making the process significantly easier. The limbs are also a modular design - capable of being altered through the switching of parts, the prosthetics are capable of growing with children, making them more sustainable than those requiring periodic replacement.

Moti Me is a product aimed at enhancing at-home physiotherapy for children - allowing them to reap the benefits of physiotherapy without relying completely on professional sessions. Moti Me is also aimed at children with disabilities - for whom physiotherapy can be an important developmental tool, but with professional sessions at times being costly, time-consuming, and difficult to access. Moti Mee provides an interactive mat for physical activities, while also providing an app that tracks a child’s process - letting parents maintain movement at home, while collaborating more easily with physiotherapists to maximise positive outcomes.

The Post Hospitalisation COVID-19 Study is a research project led by the University of Leicester - working since 2020 to understand the long-term effects of covid on hospitalised patients. The project has involved collaboration between researchers and clinicians from all across the UK - 25 universities and 83 hospitals - engaging with the experiences of 10,000 patients to understand how the virus has affected them. The insights gained by the PHOSP-COVID team have been invaluable - increasing understanding of the virus’ side-effects, helping to affect clinical practice and government policy, and informing new plans for the treatment of long covid.

DINETCQ is developing PaceFlow, a software designed to use AI to provide a virtual coaching process. PaceFlow is capable of analysing an athlete’s action, then providing instant, personalised feedback. The software offers feedback, coaching recommendations, and technique analysis - alongside a social community designed to help users stay engaged. As such, PaceFlow gives people access to personalised training that is easy to use, and might have otherwise been unavailable to them due to cost.

Make Change Inclusive Sport was started by Jay Popat with the goal of bringing paralympic and adaptive sports opportunities to people across Leicestershire. Purchasing equipment - including 40 sports wheelchairs - securing transportation, and training a workforce of small coaches, Make Change established partnerships with a range of educational, school sports and council organisations - engaging almost 6000 participants in 2022. Make Change was also able to provide more than 150 educators with leadership learning around para-sport - further increasing opportunities at schools.

Based in Loughborough, Rewire Fitness is a mental-fitness platform aimed at helping athletes avoid burnout. The Rewire platform provides tailored support - using biometric data captured by the app, and readiness assessments completed by the user to understand an individual’s physical, cognitive and emotional state. Rewire then provides evidence-based protocols that are designed to promote recovery, improve mindset, and manage stress. In doing so, Rewire Fitness provides athletes with the in-depth information and support they need to maximise their potential and avoid burnout.

Abacus Flooring Solutions Limited has worked to create a flooring system that helps prevent plastic going to landfill, while maintaining a high quality of product. Instead of silica sand, Abacus uses recycled plastic to create a seamless resin floor. The business also aims to create tile grout, adhesives, and repair floor screeds with recycled plastic. This approach could help save a significant amount of plastic from reaching landfills - in one case, Abacus has taken broken seats from Wembley stadium and recycling them this way, and is in discussions with the stadium to recycle every broken seat.

CarbonVue is a platform aimed at helping UK manufacturers reduce their carbon emissions through detailed monitoring. CarbonVue provides insights on carbon emissions for every stage of the supply chain - from supply, to manufacture, to distribution - creating a comprehensive picture of the process that gives manufacturers the capacity to pinpoint areas that need action, making it much easier to tackle carbon emissions effectively. In doing so, CarbonVue aims to drastically improve the ability of UK manufacturers to operate sustainably and responsibly.

As a society at De Montfort University, Enactus DMU is working on a variety of projects dedicated to helping people and creating a more sustainable world. Enactus’ Envirogreen project uses an allotment at the university to grow fresh food and sell it to students - and has plans to grow nutritional food for people across Leicester. The society also runs a project aimed at helping homeless people - delivering hygiene kits and working to set up a shelter. Enactus also runs a project to send medical equipment to countries in need.

Future We Want is an organisation dedicated to educating people about the climate in an engaging and easy-to-understand way. In order to do so, Future We Want has created a digital game - providing an immersive learning experience that can help people understand the carbon impact of their lifestyles and business operations, getting the information across in a way that is truly memorable. In doing so, Future We Want hopes to spur people into making choices that will reduce their carbon impact - and has engaged with 20,000 learners in this way since 2013.

Plastic Energy is a business working to innovate and transform the way we deal with plastic waste, and drive the plastic recycling industry forward. The business has two commercial chemical recycling plants in Spain - which breaks down end of life plastics into TACOIL, a recycled oil that can then be reconstructed into plastic products. As such, Plastic Energy is working to create a circular economy around plastic products, and significantly reduce landfill waste - aiming to recycle 30 million tonnes of plastic waste by 2030.