Funding-Graduate Student Funding-2009 Global Venture Challenge; deadline March 25, 2009

 

The 2009 Global Venture Challenge that is being sponsored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is an opportunity for graduate students to develop a plan for new products or innovations. The full details are available at the GVC web site:

http://www.globalventurechallenge.com/

 

Global Venture Challenge
March 25-28, 2009

Global Venture Challenge 2009 is an educational event designed to foster entrepreneurial spirit by engaging students, industry, government and the investment community in the discovery and development of innovative ideas. The ultimate goal is to encourage students to launch new technology-based businesses that can improve the well-being of the world. Specific areas of interest include Industrial Energy Efficiency.

Global Venture Challenge 2009 builds on a successful event held at Oak Ridge for the last two years. Fifteen interdisciplinary graduate school teams from the U.S. and the United Kingdom presented business ideas and competed for a $25,000 cash prize. Additionally, investors met with start-up companies from across the southeastern U.S.

The focus of this year's event is again on energy, one of the world's most critical issues. Graduate school teams from across the globe are being recruited to develop unique and innovative product ideas that can solve existing market needs and have the potential to become sustainable businesses. We will again utilize the Idea to Product ® competition model, which identifies market-viable technologies faster than traditional business plan competitions. Team submissions will be judged by diverse panels consisting of experienced energy executives, venture capitalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and the legal profession.

A new addition to the program this year is an Idea to Product® competition for high school students, presented by the University of Tennessee, where students will compete for $1000 - $4000 scholarships. Participants will observe the graduate school competition at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, tour the Knoxville campus and learn more about entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee.