Prizology
Abrar Hassan
Abrar Hassan's Story
Abrar Hassan is a medical student at the University of Leeds, currently intercalating in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. Alongside his studies, he founded Prizology, a platform designed to help medical students and early-career doctors discover academic prizes, awards, essay competitions, grants, bursaries, and portfolio-building opportunities.
The idea for Prizology came from a problem he had experienced himself. In medicine, students are often encouraged to build their portfolios early, particularly if they are interested in competitive specialties or academic careers. However, many of the opportunities that can help students do this are scattered across society websites, university pages, newsletters, and social media posts. Some are difficult to find unless you already know where to look. This creates an uneven playing field, where the most proactive or best-connected students are more likely to benefit.
Abrar wanted to create something that made these opportunities easier to access, more transparent, and more equitable. Prizology centralises these opportunities into one searchable platform. Users can filter by specialty, career stage, opportunity type, and deadline, allowing them to quickly find relevant prizes and awards. The aim is not only to save students time, but also to help them act earlier and engage more confidently with academic and professional development opportunities.
"In the future, I hope to expand the platform further, improve the quality and coverage of the opportunity database, and build stronger partnerships with universities and medical societies."
Since launching, Prizology has grown from an initial idea into a functioning platform with a database of over 500 opportunities. The platform has attracted interest from students and doctors across the UK, and Abrar has also begun exploring institutional access for medical schools. This would allow universities to provide Prizology to whole student cohorts, supporting widening participation and helping ensure that portfolio-building opportunities are not limited to students who already have strong networks or prior knowledge of the system.
A key milestone has been developing the platform beyond a simple directory into a more structured product, with premium access, search functionality, and a clearer institutional offer. Abrar has also been speaking to medical schools about how Prizology could support student opportunity, employability, and academic engagement.
"The support I received through Spark helped me refine the business model, think more clearly about the customer journey, and communicate the value of the platform to different stakeholders. Taking part in Spark's activities also gave me the opportunity to test and present the idea in a more structured way. Winning recognition through the University of Leeds Business Plan Competition was really valuable, as it gave me more confidence in the commercial and social potential of the project."
For Abrar, Prizology sits at the intersection of medicine, technology, and widening access. It began as a solution to a problem he experienced personally, but it has developed into a platform with the potential to help many more students access opportunities that could shape their future careers.
