Volusia county innovation challenge

The Innovation Challenge idea originated at the UCF - Volusia County Business Incubator's training room after a Board of Advisors meeting.  Dr. Jim Cairns was part of the Board and asked Connie if she needed help with anything. Connie told Dr. Cairns she was having some challenges finding entrepreneurs with a technology mindset in our town, so Dr. Cairns told her that he was part of the team that started the Innovation Challenge at the University of California, so he said; "Let's do an Innovation Challenge in Volusia County".  Dr. Cairns offered her to be the main philanthropist and that he could bring his team and friends to help and donate.  He said, "I bring money and investors and you plan the logistics." Connie said: "Deal", so The Cairns Foundation Innovation Challenge was born. 

Our first competition was in April 2014 and the first winner was a student from Embry Riddle University, Yung Wong, who invented a water purification system to help poor communities around the world. It was a great event and a dream come true for many including, Connie Garzon the Site Manager of the UCF - Volusia County Business Incubator. 

Since then, Dr. Cairns has awarded nine student teams from our local universities with a top prize of $10,000 each.  Our Second prize money has been awarded by a local foundation that wants to remain anonymous. 

Dr. Cairns retired from the Innovation Challenge in 2023 and Volusia County Economic Development decided to continue the legacy. 

Today, the Innovation Challenge is run by the UCF - Volusia Incubator team and some of the Incubator Board Members and its new name is The Volusia County Innovation Challenge.  

We are grateful for Dr. Cairns who has supported this initiative since its early beginnings. 

This challenge is now sponsored by Volusia County. We appreciate ten years of support from the Cairns Foundation! 

For more information about the Innovation Challenge please contact us at

386-872-3100 or via email at cgarzon@volusia.org

Applications for participation in the Volusia County Innovation Challenge must be received by or no later than 5 p.m. on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2023.  In addition to completing an application via Google Forms, be sure to also submit:

• Project Name
• Student(s) Name
• School
• 2 to 3-minute video presenting the project via email to connie.garzon@ucf.edu 

With the subject line “INNOVATION CHALLENGE APPLICATION” 

Please click on the INNOVATION CHALLENGE tab for more details and application requirements.

The Final Pitch event will be held on Wednesday, NOVEMBER 15, 2023 

 BY INVITATION ONLY. 

• Applicants must be enrolled in one of the invited schools or must have graduated within one year before the event.
• All projects proposed for presentation must be the idea of the student applicant or student applicant team.  The presenting team members must have the intention and demonstrate their authority to commercialize the technology. Applications must contain all of the information described herein and be completed according to the following format.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

An executive summary describing the venture, industry represented, target market, and value proposition shall be presented with sequentially numbered pages, and shall not exceed 1,000 words, not including supporting exhibits, graphs, and/or charts. 

Suggested sections for the Executive Summary are: 

Description of the venture

• Why anyone should invest in it?
• Description of the key innovation and its advantages over existing/competitive approaches
• Description of the innovation's potential applications
• Overview and size of addressable commercial markets 
• Estimate of the innovation's completeness and commercialization readiness
• Milestones completed to date (i.e. completed feasibility study, created website, prototypes, etc.) and timeline of future goals
• A list of actions taken to date, the tasks completed, and the steps needed to move forward

Intellectual Property (IP) Status

A full disclosure of the intellectual property status is required, including:

• The names and affiliations of all persons and/or entities having any ownership stake in the IP
• If there is any IP ownership by any person/entity other than the presenting student team, a pro-forma term sheet describing the license agreement and/or other contractual obligations that the student team has to the person/entity must be included in the application. The term sheet must contain any financial obligations, such as royalties, repayment for filing fees, etc. contained in such agreements
• If the ownership is vested entirely in the student applicant or student team, a letter from the school stating that fact shall be included in the application*

Permission to Present:

• A written statement from the school that at least one of the presenting team members is a registered, full-time, graduate or undergraduate student in good standing at the school, and that the subject matter of the application is part of the student's scholastic program*;
• Written permission from the school to present and disclose the subject matter of the application at the Innovation Challenge*;
• Written releases from any holders of non-disclosure agreements on the subject matter of the application. 

NOTE: Presentation at the Challenge constitutes a public disclosure of the subject material.

Team & Advisors:

• Name of institution and department
• Primary contact's name, email, and phone number
• Additional team members and faculty advisors' names, email, and phone numbers

Note: A poorly written application is likely to be completely disqualified or severely discounted. Take the time to carefully edit it,  have your faculty advisors approve it, spell-check it, and lay it out with clear, appropriate figures. Do not apply without all of the requested material.

* The documentation to substantiate IP ownership and permission to present must be a signed letter(s) from anyone who has the power to legally commit the university to a course of action.

JUDGING PROCESS

A panel of judges will carefully evaluate every submitted application based on the following criteria: 

• Novelty of the innovation 
• Attributes of the Startup Team 
• The size and potential of the markets addressable by the innovation
• Quality of development plan and ultimate path to market 
• Suitability for near-term development within a startup company 

Following review by a panel of judges, six or fewer applicants will be invited to make formal oral presentations at the event. Notification of applications accepted for presentation will be sent by email no less than a week and a half before the event. To ensure quality, all presentations must be presented in a private preparation session before the representative of Volusia County no less than one week before the Innovation Challenge. 

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

The Innovation Challenge will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday, NOVEMBER 15, 2023, from  2:00 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

Prizes will be presented on the day of the event.

PRIZES: 

1st Prize: $10,000 plus one year of client support services at the UCF Volusia County Business Incubator

2nd Prize: $5,000 

Sponsored by: Volusia County and the Volusia County Business Incubator Powered by UCF.

PRIZE CONDITIONS

The Challenge winners must form a legal entity, such as an LLC, to receive any prize money. Prize money may be advanced to fund the formation of such an entity. All prize money must be used to directly support the commercialization of the project. The patent filing, prototype construction, manufacturing, and advertising are some examples of acceptable uses. In the event of an abandoned project, unused prize money must be returned to the donor.

The winning legal entity must grant one non-voting, unpaid, observer seat on its board of directors to a member of Volusia County UCF Business Incubator.

The winning entity must hold a board of directors meeting within one month of receiving the prize money.

The winning entity must keep a separate, accurate accounting of how the prize money is spent, such accounting is to be made available to the Volusia County representatives within 30 days of request.

Prizes may be disbursed in incremental payments as pre-determined milestones are met.

• Applicants must be enrolled in one of the invited schools or must have graduated within one year before the event.
• All projects proposed for presentation must be the idea of the student applicant team. They must be commercialized and the presenting team members must have the intention and demonstrate their authority to commercialize them. Applications must contain all of the information described herein, and be completed according to the following format.