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BE-Basic International Design Competition for Students

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-The TOP 3 Business Plan will get travel budget for BBEST 2014!

  

-New deadline for submission of the business plan: October 05 2014!

 

 

What

BE-Basic and BBEST2014 invite students or teams of students (at Master or PhD level) to submit their innovative Business Plan based on a design for sustainable production of biobased products.

Business Plans (written in English) should include:

-      A translation of latest science and technology concepts into a business case for production of a biorenewable chemical, material and/or fuel product(s).

-      A presentation of a process design for the production process.

-      An evaluation of the risk, benefits and (economic) feasibility of the business case, including a market and competitiveness analysis.

-      An evaluation and assessment of the sustainability of the business case in a simple Life Cycle Analysis procedure

-      A full financial plan and a plan for marketing and promotion

-      An executive summary that can be assessed by a possible financer

 

Who can apply?

Individual students at Master or PhD level or groups of students at Master or PhD level can submit their plan.

 

Criteria for award selection

A professional jury will select the best Business Plan on the basis of: quality of the proposed design; viability of the business plan; originality of the proposed business idea; sustainability performance; presentation of the plan.

 

Award

The best business plan is awarded a grant of R$ 30.000, to allow further elaboration of the proposed business idea and/or further development of entrepreneurship of the involved student(s).

 

How to participate?

Step 1) Register for participation (& competition updates) by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Step 2) Get to work on your business plan

Step 3) Send your final submission to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before 05 October 2014. Submission should include: 1) the Business Plan; 2) an executive summary; and 3) a proof of studentship.

 

The award ceremony will take place during the ‘meet the CEO session’ of  the 2nd BBEST conference in Campos do Jordão – SP, Brazil, on 21 October 2014.

 

Regulations and additional information


The objective of the BE-Basic International Design Competition for Students is to stimulate entrepreneurship and
innovation among Master and PhD students in the field of production of a biorenewable chemical, material and/or
fuel product.


1. Participants


1.1. Students can participate in this competition individually or in teams. A team can consist of up to 5
students.
1.2. During this competition (from April to October 2014) participants must be registered as full-time students
at a university, enrolled in a Master or PhD program.
1.3. Students from all Master or PhD programs are allowed to participate, there is no restriction in topic or
area. Participants are in fact encouraged to establish teams with students from different areas since a
business plan requires a multidisciplinary approach.
1.4. Participants are allowed to work with a professor from their university or experienced entrepreneur as
mentor, with a merely counselling role. This mentorshould be clearly identified in the final submission (but
cannot be a participant).
1.5. As we aim to stimulate newentrepreneurs, participants are not allowed to be employed by (or otherwise
connected to) existing established or start-up companies.
1.6. To participate in the competition, the participant must register, free of charge, by sending an email to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Teams of students should appoint one representative who registers the whole team.
This registration email should include name and email of the participants and the Master or PhD program
including the university where these participants are registered as students.


2. Jury and evaluation


2.1. A professional jury will be appointed by BE-Basic. Jury members cannot be involved, in any way, in anyof
the submissions that the jury will evaluate.
2.2. The composition of this jury will not be disclosed before the submission deadline.
2.3. The jury will evaluate all complete final submissions on the following aspects:
2.3.1. quality of the proposed design;
2.3.2. viability of the business plan;
2.3.3. originality of the proposed business idea;
2.3.4. sustainability (including environmental, economic and social factors) performance;
2.3.5. presentation (in writing) of the plan
2.4. The jury’s evaluation will be final and binding andno correspondence will be entered into regarding results
and the awarding of the prize.


3. Award


3.1. The award ceremony will take place during the BBEST2014 conference in Campos do Jordão, Brazil, on 21
October 2014.
3.2. The jury will pre-select the 3 best submissions. Participants involved in these 3 submissions (or in case of a
team, at least one participant representing the team) must be present during the award ceremony and
must prepare a presentation or video pitch (maximumduration: 3 minutes) to present their business plan
to the audience during the award ceremony. This pitch is not part of the evaluation, but will be takeninto
account to appoint a winner in case the evaluation is inconclusive. If the participant involved in a
preselected submission is not present during the award ceremony, the jury has the right to exclude this
submission from the award ceremony and invite the runner-up to participate.

3.3. For the mandatory presence at the award ceremony, as mentioned in article 3.2, a travel budget is
available for one participant of each of the 3 pre-selected submissions, containing economy class transport
to the BBEST conference and a three day stay (hoteland meals). The actual, reasonable costs of traveland
stay will be reimbursed, based on receipts, with a maximum of 2.500 EURO per person.
3.4. The award must be used to further elaborate the proposed business idea and/or further develop the
entrepreneurship of the involved participant(s). The presentation or video pitch, mentioned in article3.2,
must have a specific proposal how the award will beused.
3.5. The award is provided “as is”. Award winners are responsible for paying applicable taxes, if any.
3.6. Award winner(s) will permit organizers and sponsorsof the competition to use, free of charge, any
received personal data, any photos or any contributions linked to the competition to be used in
promotional activities relating to the competition and in relation to the announcement of the winner
through all media.
3.7. Award winner(s) will cooperate in promotional activities to the extent that can be reasonably expected,
including publicity regarding the announcements of the winner(s) across all media and regarding the
deployment of the award (as mentioned in article 3.4). For cooperating with these promotional activities
no financial compensation will be paid.
3.8. The prize is personal and not transferable or exchangeable. In case of refusal or non-acceptance of the
prize or conditions that are inherent to the competition, the prize will not be awarded. In that case,BE-Basic is entitled to choose another winner.


4. Submission


4.1. The final submission consists of three elements:
4.1.1. A business plan. A mandatory model for this business plan will be provided to registered participants.
The business plan cannot exceed 30 pages (A4). Appendixes with additional information are allowed,
but consider that the business plan itself should have all necessary information for the evaluation by
the jury.
4.1.2. An executive summary. This is a condensed description of the essence of the business plan, the
bottom line of what the business idea is all about.This summary should have a clear business
proposition, a section on the costs (investment, payback time, etc.), benefits (including social and
environmental benefits) and (business) risks. The executive summary cannot exceed 2 pages (A4).
4.1.3. Proof of studentship. For each participant a verifiable proof of studentship should be included (see
also article 1.2).
4.2. The final and complete submission must be send to Brazil@be-basic.orgbefore 05 October  2014.
Submissions received after this date or incomplete submissions will be excluded from the competition.
4.3. All elements of the submission must be written in English and must be provided in commonly used, easily
accessible (unsecured) file types, such as PDF.
4.4. The submission should be original and recent work, carried out by the participants themselves and not
submitted to any other competition or business challenge or equivalents.


5. General


5.1. Only the organizers and jury of the competition have access to the complete submissions and only for
purposes directly related to the competition.
5.2. All IP and know-how in the submitted materials remain the property of the original owners, submission
will not result in any transfer of ownership to theorganizers, jury and sponsors of the competition.
5.3. The organizers of this competition are entitled to,at its discretion and without notice, change or modify
these regulations and without giving a reason to discontinue, modify or adapt the competition for reasons
of its own without any obligation to compensate anydamages on behalf of the participant. Any changes or
adaptations within the competition, will be communicated to registered participants.
5.4. Any participation in the competition implies unreserved acceptance of these regulations by the
participant.
5.5. Participants can be disqualified when it’s believedthey are not acting in conformity with the regulations of
the competition or if the participant is otherwise fraudulently accessing the competition or unfairly
influencing the course of the competition.