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Every good business starts with a good idea and a robust business plan. EigenFIT demonstrated that it possess both of these things when it reached the final of the Research Councils UK 2003 Business Plan Competition. In 2003 for the first time seven research councils endorsed the competition. UK research in science, technology and the arts ranks among the highest in the world. The aim of this competition is to help commercialise some of the best projects so that the whole of UK society can benefit. In this years competition 114 entrants were asked to provide a one page summary describing their business idea and its commercial viability. Of these proposals 45 were selected for the next stage of the competition in which a full business plan was required from each participating teams. The best five plans were required to attend the final at the prestigious Royal Society in London. All five finalists had to give a 15 minute presentation describing their inventions and were questioned by a panel of judges about the financial practicalities of their projects. The eventual winner was ThruVision an imaging device from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories that can improve security at airports. The prize giver, Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science said:

"This competition highlights how world class UK science is being put to use for the benefit of us all. I congratulate all of the excellent applicants and particularly the winners. They all deserve to be highly successful in the future."

To reach the final was a significant achievement for EigenFIT. The company did exceptionally well to make it to the later stages of the competitions since it was up against teams from larger organisations with significantly greater resources. The fact that EigenFIT was judged to be runner up can only be attributed to the innovation of its facial composite system and the ability of its small but dedicated team.