Funding-National Agricultural Innovation Prize; February 28, 2014

Yesterday, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced the launch of the 2014 National Agricultural Innovation Prize.  In collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the competition is open to U. S. undergraduate and graduate students across all academic disciplines.  The competition runs through the Spring 2014 and teams will compete for a chance to win $100,000.  With over $200,000 in total cash awards, this will be the largest student-focused competition on agriculture in the world.

The competition encourages student teams to develop innovative ways and real-world plans to address social and agricultural challenges within food systems to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s population.  Student teams should be transdisciplinary and their initial entry must consists of the following:

· a narrative of the business proposal that does not exceed two pages

· a 200-word abstract of the business plan (that may be made publicly available)

· a presentation (in the format of .ppt or .pptx) not to exceed ten slides

Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will administer the prize and will run the competition in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture.  Student team entries are due by February 28, 2014.  More information about the competition can be found at:  http://agprize.com and at http://www.40Chances.com.

The National Agricultural Innovation Prize was inspired by the upcoming release of the book 40 Chances:  Finding Hope in a Hungry World, written by Howard G. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.  The book is co-authored by Howard W. Buffett and with a forward by Warren Buffett, 40 Chances chronicles Howard G. Buffett’s evolving views on how philanthropy, government, and the private sector can best combat hunger and poverty across the globe.

Please share this information with your students so that they may be aware of this extraordinary and exciting opportunity and note that faculty may become mentors and judges.