For Hometown News
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the Cairns Foundation and the Volusia County University of Central Florida Business Incubator jointly present the ERAU Innovation Challenge.
The event will be at ERAU's Daytona Beach campus on April 19. The goal of the challenge is to promote the commercialization of innovations spawned by local students.
Both undergraduate and graduate students from ERAU, Bethune-Cookman University, UCF, Daytona State College, Florida Institute of Technology and Stetson University are eligible to participate. Finalists from the six schools will present their innovative ideas to a group of local investors, providing the student entrepreneurs with a possible opportunity to advance their technology's commercialization through early-stage funding. Finalists will compete for the $5,000 Cairns Foundation Innovation Prize and one year enrollment in the Volusia County UCF Business Incubator Program.
Both will be awarded to the innovation deemed to have the greatest commercial potential.
Only currently-registered students are eligible to participate. For consideration, the lead applicant for each project must submit the following information in a Word document of 400 or fewer words:
A descriptive project title
Name of the lead applicant and any team members; include academic affiliation, phone, and e-mail addresses for all
A brief description of the innovation, including projected applications and markets
Description of competitive advantage, barriers to entry, and market-penetration strategy
Project status
Status of the intellectual property protection for the technology, and its availability for licensing or assignment.
No confidential or proprietary information may be presented.
Applicants must provide evidence of their academic institution's permission to present their projects. Only those projects available for commercialization are eligible to participate. Six semi-finalists chosen from all eligible applicants will each give a 20 minute project pitch to an audience of judges, investors and general public attendees.
Applications must be submitted to info@cairnsfoundation.com no later than April 5.