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£1k Challenge

Submitted by Jan-Willem van ... on Fri, 07/11/2023 - 11:12.

- CUE £1k Challenge -

- Deadline EXTENDED: Monday 8 December, 13:00 -

- Update: Step by step Entry Instructions can be found here -

CU Entrepreneurs has entered the second phase of its competition, where up to 10 cash prizes of £1000 will be awarded for Executive Summaries of not more than 1500 words. Entry is open to all but each team must have at least one member of the University.  Read the Competitions Handbook for more information. To help you write the best possible entry, the Resources page has guides and slides from our training events and workshops.

The purpose of the £1k Challenge is to elaborate on your idea, demonstrate its market potential and begin laying out the steps needed to make the plans a reality. From this point on, the competition is split into three streams and you must decide which stream your entry will be judged in.  The streams for 2008-09 are:

  • Technology Ideas (including CleanTech). Technology-based businesses with a high potential for profit and growth.
  • Social Enterprise Ideas (including Environmentally Sustainable ventures). Socially and/or environmentally conscious organisations with a scalable potential for impact. Can be either for profit or not-for-profit. 
  • Software Ideas (including Web and Mobile). All ventures with a software based development model.

There is also, at the £1k stage, a Consumer Products prize, to capture those ideas that demonstrate great potential as products and which would benefit from partnerships with existing companies.  This is an exciting opportunity for a wide audience to take part in the competition and we look forward to helping even more ideas get out into the real world.

The judging criteria are the same in each category at the £1k stage of the competition, but there are separate panels of judges. See  the Competitions Handbook for details on the criteria that entries are judged against.

We strongly recommend you read the Competitions Handbook to ensure that you fully understand the competition rules. Good luck with your entry!