NINE businesses have been nominated for the Scottish heats of the Bank of Scotland Enterprise Awards, which have a first prize of £50,000.

Three categories - start-up, digital and enterprise - are open to entrepreneurs studying at universities across England, Scotland or Wales - or who graduated within the past five years and have been trading for more than a year.

The shortlist includes Enginters, an online internship platform from Strathclyde University; Hannah Whisky Merchants of Fife; Edinburgh-based fun-photo start-up Blushbooth; Livingston-based Geneology Worldwide;children's entertainment company Kidnetic in Glasgow; Northport Studio in Elgin; sleepscarf inventor Trtl; VH Innovation created by Victoria Hamilton at Strathclyde University to devise knee and joint protection for manual tradespeople; and Room Booking Systems, started by graduates Marcus Fields and Robbie Beattie when they were in high school, which services over 1,000 schools worldwide.