The competition, sponsored by a host of top industry names, aims to recognise PhD students who are able to "communicate and demonstrate the excellence and exploitation potential of their research".

There are five cash prizes of £2,000 with a chance to win a bonus prize of £1,000.

The competition is open to all second and third-year UK postgraduate research students in ICT-related subjects, including electronics, communications, computer science and photonics.

The competition is being sponsored by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, HP, EPSRC, Imagination Technologies, ARM, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the BBC and BT.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, said: "This competition provides students with a fantastic platform for them to connect with some world-leading companies and demonstrate how valuable their research could be to industry."