By Chris Avery
Entrepreneurial students have until January 18 to apply for the TELUS Innovation Challenge for the chance to win up to $200,000 in funding towards their project.
Hosted by the University of Calgary, the competition is open to all post-secondary students on a team looking to innovate in the energy and environment, technology and communication, and health and medicine sectors.
Both TELUS and Alberta Innovates will be providing funding to the winning team in the competition.
The $100,000 prize package from TELUS includes a seed fund to help build the winning team’s prototype and personalized mentorship to get their product to market. Alberta Innovates will provide up to $100,000 in commercialization funding to the winning team.
The application package must include a proposal that focuses on impact, market size and preliminary financial projections, among other requirements. This type of forecasting helps prospective investors identify how projects are innovative and how they seek to disrupt the current market.
For a team to be eligible, only one team member in groups of three or larger must be enrolled at a post-secondary institution in Canada.
The event will be delivered virtually, including a 10-minute pitch to the panel of judges.
This is the moment for teams to hone their pitch skills by highlighting the innovations in their project.
The contest schedule takes place over several days. The primary portion of the contest runs from Feb. 16 to 19. Mentoring sessions will take place on Feb. 16, followed by the pitch competition on Feb. 18. Awards will be given out the following day.
The competition also includes several workshops available to prospective entrants and those who have already applied.
The first workshop occurred on Jan. 8, and included pre-emptive training for writing proposals. On Feb. 10, the pitch delivery workshop will be held to aid applicants with pitch practice and delivery to the panel of judges.
More information can be found here.
