Times Online is the media partner for Oxford University's 21st Century
Challenge. An international entrepreneurship competition for bold and
innovative business ideas that can help to solve some of the key challenges
of the 21st Century. Write a business plan for your start-up idea and you
could win £35,000 to help you get started.
The goal of the competition is to promote the creation of sustainable new
business ventures that combine financial returns with social and
environmental benefits. These can include new products and services,
operational processes and business models.
The competition encourages ground breaking innovation and problem solving –
challenging entrepreneurs from across the world to make a real difference
through developing new markets and making a sustainable profit.
To achieve this, the competition is divided into three challenge tracks:
•Tomorrow's Planet – ideas covering environmental challenges
•Tomorrow's People - ideas covering healthcare and medical
challenges
•Tomorrow's Wealth – ideas covering social inequality and
distribution of wealth challenges
To enter, participants business ideas must address a key 21st Century
challenge in one of these tracks. Entrants will be required to write a
5-page outline summarizing their business idea.
The prize fund for the 2007 competition is £65,000, divided into:
£35,000 prize for the competition winner
£10,000 prize for the winner of each challenge track
The deadline for all submissions is 5pm (GMT) 12th October 2007. All entries
must be submitted via the 21st
Century Challenge Competition website
Challenges
Entries to the Oxford University 21st Century Challenge Competition will be
accepted into one of the following 'challenge' tracks:
Tomorrow's Planet
The Tomorrow's Planet track is for innovative business ideas that address 21st
century environmental challenges. This might include new products and
services, innovative operational processes or business models across such
areas as: housing and construction, packaging, bio fuels, transport, energy
generation and efficiency, water and/or waste management.
The best entry into the 2007 Tomorrow's Planet challenge track will recieve a
cash prize of £10,000 sponsored by NESTA Innovation Challenges
Tomorrow's People
The Tomorrow's People track is for innovative business ideas that address 21st
century healthcare and medical challenges. This might include new products
and services, innovative operational processes or business models across
such areas as: ageing, obesity, treating chronic and infectious diseases,
antibiotic resistance, improving access to healthcare and better healthcare
management systems.
The best entry into the 2007 Tomorrow's People challenge track will recieve a
cash prize of £10,000 sponsored by Grant Thornton
Tomorrow's Wealth
The Tomorrow's Wealth track is for innovative business ideas that can help to
widen the benefits of wealth creation in the 21st Century.
This might include new products and services, innovative operational processes
or business models across areas such as: information and communications
technology, education and training, fair trade, micro-finance initiatives,
tourism and agriculture.
The best entry into the 2007 Tomorrow's Wealth challenge track will recieve a
cash prize of £10,000 to be awarded by competition organisers
Entries will be accepted into one challenge track only. Where the distinction
is not clear, for example an idea that falls between Tomorrow's Planet and
Tomorrow's Wealth entrants are advised to choose the track where the
percieved benefits of the idea are greatest.
Who can enter
Entries will be accepted from individuals, teams, new companies, existing
companies creating spin-offs, students, scientists, academics and
entrepreneurs. Regional, national and international participation is
encouraged.
Business ideas can be based on a new product, a service, operational process
or business model.
To be considered eligible for the 2007 competition, all entries must:
Be innovative
Be a commercial, for-profit venture
Address a 21st Century Challenge, within one of the tracks
Not have received more than £250K in funding by the submission deadline (12th
October 2007
Demonstrate a positive social and/or environmental impact as well as an
economic return
If you are not sure whether or not your business idea meets the above
criteria, we are happy to discuss your particular case. Click here for more
details.
Notes
Researchers are advised to check their intellectual property position with the
appropriate research council or technology transfer office before entering.
Any grants earmarked for research expenditure do not count towards the £250K
limit.
Requirements
All entrants will be required to submit a 5-page executive summary of their
business idea. Up to five additional pages will be allowed for relevant
exhibits and appendices e.g. team CVs, financial reports, letters from
potential customers.
All entries must use 10-point or larger font and be submitted as a single Word
or PDF attachment. This should be no more than 2MB in size.
Entries will only be accepted via the 4-step registration process accessed via
the 'Submit your idea' page of this website.
Executive Summary Guidelines
All executive summaries should contain the following information and headings:
•Team Name
•Opening Statement
•The Idea & Unique Selling Point (USP)
•The Market Opportunity
•The Management Team
•The Financial Plan
•The Environmental and Social Benefits
To download detailed guidance on the Executive Summary click here
All teams must have one designated team leader. The team leader will be the
main point of contact for the competition organizers and will take
responsibility for coordinating with each team members.
All work submitted must be the original work of the members of the team which
they are free to disclose. Teams will not be able to submit the same
proposal in to more than one category, though contestants can be members of
more than one team.
Entrants need not have registered a company at the time of entry to the
competition but will be required to do so in order to receive cash prizes.
