Deadline: September 12, 2017 | Apply here

Eligibility: Any individual over 18 years old

Prizes: Grand Prize USD 5,000,-

Location: Philadelphia, The United States

Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition 2017

The Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) is open to applicants worldwide and offers a tremendous opportunity to entrepreneurs and investors alike.

The Competition includes a path for Ideas (opening Summer 2017), as well as a path for Ventures (check back in January 2018).

In offering multiple prizes and prize categories, the EBPC attracts innovative ideas in education from around the world, ranging from those structured on local or global needs, public or private issues, Pre-K through adult education, and social or for-profit ventures.

Competition Themes

Urban Education

Connecting Research to Practice

Teaching & Learning

Technology in Grades K through 12

Special Education & At-Risk Students

Open & Collaborative Solutions: The Education Ecosystem

Online & Distance Learning in Higher Education

Global/Borderless Education Solutions

Early Childhood Education

Workforce Learning

Two Tracks: Ventures and Ideas

As of the 2017 Competition, the Idea and Venture paths of the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition will run in series rather than concurrently (but both paths do still exist!).

The Idea path, aimed at entrepreneurs in the early stages of ideation or product/service development, opens for submissions in early August 2017. Applicants in the Idea path are expected to be pre-revenue and pre-investment.

If your innovation is further along in its development, please check back with in January 2018 for more information on the Venture path. Applicants in the Venture path are expected to already have or plan to generate revenue, grants, customers, or investors.

Prizes

Idea Path Grand Prize (1): $5,000

Other Idea Path Prizes (2): $2,500

All Idea Path Finalists: $1,000

Eligibilities

Any individual is eligible to enter the Competition by submitting an Entry (defined below), except the following individuals are not eligible:

Anyone who is under 18 years old;

Any Competition judge;

Anyone who previously was awarded a prize in this Competition. (However, if a previous winner wants to enter a new educational entrepreneurship business plan, which the University determines, in its sole opinion and determination, is unrelated to the previous winning educational entrepreneurship business plan, then the previous winning Applicant may do so, subject to his or her or its compliance with all of the other eligibility requirements.);

Anyone for whom it would be illegal to enter this Competition in his or her legal jurisdiction of residence;

Any Graduate School of Education faculty, lecturer, administrator, staff, or other employees. (Note: Faculty, lecturers, administrators, staff, employees, and students from the University of Pennsylvania and its schools, centers and institutes, other than the Graduate School of Education, may enter the Competition, provided that he or she has first disclosed his or her product or service or technology or concept or intellectual property to the University’s Penn Center for Innovation or its successor (“Penn PCI”), using the disclosure form required by Penn PCI, in order for Penn PCI to determine whether the University has an ownership interest in such product or service or technology or concept or intellectual property by virtue of its intellectual property and employment policies.

A group of individuals also may enter the Competition, so long as all of the individuals meet the requirements above for a single individual to enter. In other words, if one member of the group is ineligible to enter, the group is not eligible to enter. A corporation, partnership, or other legal entity, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, also is eligible to enter, provided it is legal for the entity to enter under applicable law. However, organizations entering the competition may not have raised more than the equivalent of US$500,000 from all investors and founders since the beginning of the legal existence of the organization until the date the organization submits its Executive Summary and Application Form.

Additionally, organizations entering the competition may not have had more than the equivalent of US$200,000 in gross revenue since the beginning of the legal existence of the organization until the date the organization submits its executive summary.

Organizations that have raised more than this threshold, as determined in the sole opinion of the University, will be disqualified. Furthermore, organizations entering the Idea path of the Competition are expected to be pre-revenue and pre-investment.

Each Applicant is responsible for determining whether he, she or it is eligible to enter the Competition, based upon these Rules and the laws governing the applicant.

The University of Pennsylvania (“University”) will not make this determination for you. However, if the University determines, in good faith, at some future time, that the Applicant was ineligible to enter the Competition or submit the Entry, the University may disqualify the Entry at any time, before or after the awarding of the prizes.

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