ENTREPRENEURIAL students from Oxford University are to battle it out in a bid to win thousands of pounds of funding.

The six teams will be in line for prize funding of up to £10,000 should they triumph in the Dragon's Den-style contest, Idea Idol.

They have been picked from more than 250 entries and will be looking to repeat the success of last year's finalists, which included Design the Time, which went on to be backed directly by judges Dan Wagner and Shaa Wasmund's venture capital fund, Bright Station Ventures.

This year, the judges include Dragon's Den panellist Deborah Meaden and organisers say the standard is far higher than last year, with double the prize funding on offer.

Competition spokesman Duncan Turnbull said: "The contestants are coming from all sorts of different backgrounds and it promises to be very exciting."

The young would-be tycoons will have just two minutes to deliver an 'elevator pitch' to impress the judges and put themselves on the road to fame and fortune.

An audience made up of about 300 fellow students, local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business angels will also have a role.

Idea Idol is the flagship event of Oxford Entrepreneurs, Oxford University's student society for entrepreneurs, which has more than 3,000 student members.

The finalists will compete in the event which takes place on Tuesday at the Said Business School, in Oxford.

The contestants are:

  • Altitude Medical - a groundbreaking invention to counter the spread of hospital-acquired infections such as the MRSA superbug
  • Heat is Energy - an Einstein-patented process to use heat that is currently treated as waste, saving money, carbon and energy
  • Zoombu - a website which allows people to plan all the permutations of a trip between two destinations in Europe including methods of transport, speed and cost
  • CivSpark - a platform ena- bling everyone to fundraise for the causes that appeal to them most
  • NowIknow - a one-stop source of career information to help individuals find the best job
  • Open Source University - a website providing university level education free of charge.