Deadline 11.59pm Tue 2 Feb 2021.
Venture 2021 is a £30,000 new business idea competition for all University of Dundee Students, Staff and Recent Graduates across 7 prize fund categories. Winners will be offered a place on Elevator's Dundee accelerator programme and there will also be three iPad's sponsored by Converge Challenge awarded to the best pitches as voted by the public audience on the day of the final. Further to the competition funding stated below DC Thomson and Elevator will also be contributing towards a discretionary fund that will be awarded additionally to applicants decided by the external judging panel.
Stage 1 - Submission of Online Application Form
University of Dundee Student Awards
- School of Life Sciences Student Award (Any School of Life Sciences student currently studying or who graduated within the last 2 years) - £3,000 prize fund sponsored by University of Dundee School of Life Sciences
- School of Art and Design Student Award - £2,500 prize fund sponsored by University of Dundee School of Art and Design
- School of Science and Engineering Student Award (Any School of Science and Engineering student currently studying or who graduated within the last 5 years) - £5,000 prize fund sponsored by University of Dundee School of Science and Engineering and Engineers In Business Fellowship
- Student Award (for all other schools: Business, Dentistry, Education and Social Work, Humanities, Medicine, Health Sciences or Social Sciences) - £3,000 prize fund sponsored by Aydya and University of Dundee School of Business
- Postgraduate Researcher Award - £2,500 prize fund sponsored by the Doctoral Academy, University of Dundee
OR
University of Dundee Staff/Recent Graduate
- Recent Graduate Award (Graduation dated within last 2 years - Science and Engineering graduates (last 5 years) or Life Sciences graduates (last 2 years) should apply to the appropriate student category above) - £3,000 prize fund sponsored by Aydya
- Staff Award (University of Dundee research-related or non-research idea) - £11,000 prize fund sponsored by Research and Innovation Services, Organisational and Professional Development, University of Dundee School of Science and Engineering and Centre for Entrepreneurship
Stage 2 - Submission of Proposal Form
Finalists for each category will be notified of their selection on Friday 5 February 2021 before 7 pm and the list of Finalists will be published on the Venture website thereafter.
The Finalists for each prize category will then be required to submit a completed Venture 2020 Stage 2 Proposal Form by the deadline of Thursday 18 February 2021 before 12 noon. Late submissions will not be accepted.
A workshop will be held by the Centre for Entrepreneurship on Thursday 11 February 2021 for advice and guidance in completing the proposal form - details of this workshop will be provided upon successfully progression to Stage 2.
Stage 3 - Live Pitching Final/Prize-Giving
The External Judging Panel will assess the Finalists and the winners will be announced at the Venture 2021 Final (a main event within Entrepreneurship Week) on Thursday 25 February 2021 based on their previously submitted Venture Competition Proposal Form and the Finalist’s 3-minute pitch (5 PPT slides available) and 5 minutes Q&A.
Assessment of the Finalists by the External Judging Panel will be based on the Venture 2021 judging criteria as published on the Competition Website.