What is the 21st Century Challenge Competition?
The Oxford University 21st Century Challenge is an international entrepreneurship competition for bold and innovative business ideas that can help to solve some of the key challenges of the 21st Century.
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.
Who can enter?
Entries are accepted from individuals, teams, new companies, existing companies creating spin-offs, students, scientists, academics and entrepreneurs. Regional, national and international participation is encouraged.
Judging criteria
The judging criteria aim to reflect the assessment criteria of potential investors, including venture capitalists, business angels, banks, universities or public institutions. The overriding criterion is fundability, 'would the appropriate investor fund this business as a viable commercial enterprise?'
The appropriate level of funding could be £10,000 of seed capital or £1.5m venture funding, as appropriate to the developmental stage of the business idea and target industry sector.
Hence we judge:
- The viability of the business idea
- The vision of the business idea and potential of the team to make it work
- The quality of the executive summary proposal.
The judges evaluate the team's vision and potential to execute the business plan as well as its balance of skills; a team need not be complete. They are looking for evidence of realistic market and financial projections; including resources to execute the plan.