Unit information: Innovation Project in 2025/26

Please note: Programme and unit information may change as the relevant academic field develops. We may also make changes to the structure of programmes and assessments to improve the student experience.

Unit name Innovation Project
Unit code INOVM0021
Credit points 60
Level of study M/7
Teaching block(s) Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director Dr. Ben Hobbs
Open unit status Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)

None

Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)

None

Units you may not take alongside this one

None

School/department Centre for Innovation
Faculty Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

The final project serves as a culmination of the skills you've developed throughout the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Master's degree programmes. The core aim is to apply these skills within an innovative context, ultimately leading to a potentially viable and sustainable new venture.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study

You will be offered a high degree of freedom to select and develop a project in a team; spending a significant amount of time and effort on the research and development of a novel offering which meets a clearly identified market opportunity to create value. The outcome will be a venture plan suitable for presentation to potential investors or stakeholders, accompanied by a design document clearly outlining your design process and a reflective summary of your learning journey throughout the project. This unit provides an opportunity to refine and exercise a highly transferable set of skills including collaboration, self-awareness, self-reflection, self-management; creative design; research; product or service development and prototyping; analysis, critique, and evaluation; entrepreneurship and new venture creation.

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content

As this is a supervised dissertation unit, there is no formal taught content. However, your supervisor will provide support to help you extend the knowledge and skills gained in previous units.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of this unit

You will not only gain competence and confidence in applying your research and design skills to venture creation but also produce a venture plan of a standard suitable for sharing with potential stakeholders to get your venture started. This unit offers a transformative opportunity to explore a project of genuine interest to you, providing real career value whether you plan to launch your own venture or simply wish to showcase the in-demand skills employers seek. You will have extended your design thinking, systems thinking, and business development knowledge and be able to select and apply them to a range of real and imagined scenarios. Furthermore, you will have further developed your understanding of what it means to think and act like an entrepreneur and be able to articulate this understanding.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to: 

  1. Select and apply a range of appropriate tools and approaches to develop a compelling value proposition for an innovative new project.
  2. Critically evaluate the desirability, feasibility, viability, adaptability, and credibility of a proposed innovation project.
  3. Document and reflect critically on both the process of discovering and validating a viable and innovative value-creation opportunity and the personal learning that took place.
  4. Present a professional-standard plan for an innovation project covering all aspects of the contextual or market analysis, route to adoption and implementation, strategic advantage, and financial case.
  5. Demonstrate skills collaborating with and for others in the process of realising value creation activities.

How you will learn

This dissertation-type project is intended to promote self-directed and collaborative learning, under guidance of an academic supervisor (plus any relevant external third-parties).

How you will be assessed

Tasks which do not count towards your unit mark but are required for credit (zero-weighted):

Early Concept and Research Pitch (group assessment), 10 minutes (equivalent to 1000 words) (0%, Required for Credit) [ILOs 1, 4, and 5]

Formative feedback on group work will be provided in small tutorial groups. This will provide opportunities to reflect on work completed and to identify appropriate mitigating strategies.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Design Document & Venture Plan (group assessment), 10000 words or equivalent (100%) [ILOs 1,2,3,4 and 5]

When assessment does not go to plan

When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year. 

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. INOVM0021).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.

The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.