The oil industry is booming in North America where shale has become the biggest industrial success story of the decade despite mounting environmental concern about the heavy use of rock fracturing to release the prize.
With entrepreneurship and innovation increasingly recognised by governments as the foundation of a competitive national economy and SMEs accounting for 58.8% of private-sector employment and 48.8% of private-sector turnover (Department for Business Innovation & Skills, October 2011), the Scottish Institute for Enterprise's (SIE) has engaged universities from across the country in its New Ideas Competition to host a Dragons Den-style competition.
