Students receive a £500 loan, mentoring support and structured learning through preparation, trading and reflection. The programme is open to all students and teams must have five to seven members.

How it works

Students need to apply to the programme; they don’t need to be in a team, or have finalised their team, to do this. After that, we meet with all applicants to find out a bit more about their ideas and place them into a team if needed. They will then have time to flesh out their proposal and put together a more detailed plan.

When the plans have been submitted, the whole team meets with an expert panel to talk them through it. The panel picks the four best plans and allocates a mentor to each successful team. Each team gets to run the pop-up shop for a day and is given a £500 loan to buy stock, create a marketing campaign, and plan a strategy in advance of their allocated trading day.

Mentors support teams while they plan their day in the shop and afterwards help them reflect on how it went and what they learned.

Timelines

Applications open at midday on 23 February 2026 and will close on 13 March 2026. After applications have closed, students will not be able to take part in the programme this year, so we recommend submitting applications as soon as possible.

Who can apply

The programme is open to all students. It doesn’t matter what course they’re studying, or what stage of study they're at, the competition is open to everyone and is a fun way to get new experience and make new friends.

Students can either form their own team, or we’ll place them into a team, to make sure that they're working with people with complimentary skills.

We want to encourage students from all courses, background, and future interests to take part. If you have a student who you think would benefit from an entrepreneurial experience, please recommend the programme to them.

They can visit the Pop-Up Shop Programme webpage for full information and application details.