Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
Do you have a new idea, technology, product, business model or a startup that is aiming for sustainable urban development and/or solving social problems? Participate with an existing team or assemble it for your idea to win monetial awards!
The competition’s theme is to promote sustainable urban development with scientific and technological innovation, focusing on science entrepreneurship.
The Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition hosted by the Alliance of
Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities (GISU) will be held from March to November 2023. Application period for in-school preliminary competition has been extended to last until 21st of May, 2023.
Based upon this year’s theme, various types of innovation and entrepreneurship-related projects are welcome. Strategic goals of each city’s economic and social development should be considered with the basic idea of promoting sustainable urban development through scientific and technological innovation. The competition’s introduction video can be seen here (opens in a new window).
Eligible applicants are full-time students over 18 years old or graduates within 5 years of graduation (graduates after 2018). HUBS is the in-school organizer of the competition in Tampere Universities.
This competition is a great opportunity to
- develop your skills in pitching your idea
- gain international experience and contacts
- compete and pressure test your idea / business
- earn credits from your participation (1-3 ects)
And of course there is the possibility to win monetial awards!
Winning teams from Tampere during recent years
During the last few years, Tampere has sent incredible participants into the competition with ideas such as mental health mobile app, systemic circular economy solutions for urban design, connecting locals with immigrants, helping students to find meaningful friendships and making every day life more environmentally friendly.
In 2020, Medified, a startup based in Tampere, won the first prize in the GISU competition. Tampere has shown success in the competition with teams winning second prizes (Team ESC) and Outstanding Presentation Awards (Team As One).
Competition information
Competition Finalists will be judged by the following criteria but not limited to:
- Innovation – Assessment of the level of innovation
- Team – Assessment of the qualifications of team members, teamwork and external partners;
- Commerciality – Assessment of business feasibility, operating performance, growth potential
- and cash flow
- Social Benefits – Assessment of contributions driving employment and other sustainable developments
- Communication – Assessment of presentation.
Participants of specific projects must be full-time students over 18 years old or graduates within 5 years of graduation (graduates after 2018), including both undergraduate and graduate master’s and doctoral students, from GISU member universities, which include:
- Belarusian State University of Physical Culture
- Charles Darwin University
- Durban University of Technology
- Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
- Guangzhou Medical University
- Guangzhou University
- Incheon National University
- Linköpings Universitet
- Middle East Technical University
- National Technical University of Ukraine (“Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”)
- Polytechnic University of Valencia
- Stellenbosch University
- Tampere University
- University of Coimbra
- Université of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
- University of Padova
- University of Quebec at Montreal
- University of the West of England
- University of Zaragoza
- Western Sydney University
The principal applicant will be considered as the team leader.
At least two team members should be either current Tampere University community students or graduates within the past 5 years. In regard to whether some members are not either students or graduates within the past 5 years, we recommend these individuals are listed with the regular team members as “associate” or “ex officio”.
- In-School Preliminary Competition (Application period is until 21st of May 2023, moving forward with our chosen semi-finalists by 16th of June).
- Online Semi-Final Competition (To be held online, 10th of July 2023)
- Final Competition (To be held in-person and online, 9-10th of November 2023)
For concept teams, there will be gold, silver, bronze awards and outstanding mentor awards to be presented in the finals. Some awards may be vacant according to the number of entries. The forum and competition organizing committee will issue award certificates, medals and bonuses, as shown below.
Gold Award – 1 with a bonus equivalent of ~12 000 €
Silver Award – 2 with each receiving a bonus equivalent of ~6000 €
Bronze Award – 3 with each receiving a bonus equivalent of ~2000 €
Outstanding Mentor Award – 6 (principal mentor of Gold, Silver and Bronze Award prize winners equivalent of ~600 €)
*All award money is subject to applicable taxes.
For start up teams, the reward is an acceleration programme.
Gold award – ACCELERATION PROGRAMME (consultancy equivalent of 10,000 EURO)
Silver Award – ACCELERATION PROGRAMME (consultancy equivalent of 8,000 EURO)
Bronze Award – ACCELERATION PROGRAMME (consultancy equivalent of 5,000 EURO)
The details of the accelerator programme will be revealed later.
- All entry material must include as a standard a five-minute maximum project demonstration video, PPTs and a business plan with either virtual or in-person defenses in English.
- Project demonstration video: MP4 format, max. five-minute video duration with size to not exceed set limits. Videos submitted should be encoded as H.264 while audio is encoded as AAC with the resolution being 800 * 600.
- Project presentation PowerPoint: in the format of ppt or pptx with the size to not exceed 20M, for maximum five-minute presentation duration.
You can receive the credits via “Building an Entrepeneurial Portfolio” – course. In case you wish to receive credits on your participation, enroll to the course in question.
Credits:
Participating successfully to in-school preliminary competition = 1 ects
Accepting to Semi-finals or further = 2 ects
Altogether 3 ects available
Please read carefully the competition rules before applying.
When your team has finished the inquired materials, fill out the Application form. One application per team!
Do you have questions?
If you have some questions about the competition, do not hesitate to contact Ira, who is coordinating the competition in Tampere Universities.
The Q&A session in Zoom was held on 24th of April. See the materials here.
Contact person
Ira Salminen
Community Coordinator
Ira is coordinating GISU Competition participations.