Entrepreneurial students can be in with a chance to win a prize from an overall €30,000 cash prize fund and €30,000 consultancy fund, which includes a €10,000 first prize, in the Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards competition.
Ireland’s Minister for Small Business, John Perry, TD, said the competition aims to spur third-level students to develop innovative business proposals and develop a real-world business venture.
The Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards, which are co-sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, Intel, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys and Grant Thornton, are Ireland’s biggest and longest-established student enterprise competition for third-level student teams from the whole island.
The sponsors will also provide guidance to the students in areas such as intellectual property, market research, finances, technology development, public relations and advertising.
“Young entrepreneurs and third-level students are a seed bed for future business start-ups and as such they should be part of Ireland getting back on its feet and the drive to stimulate more micro and small business activity and create jobs,” Perry said.
“We have to encourage and stimulate these students to be ambitious about their own potential to go into business for themselves, and these awards are a really important opportunity for them to test their flair for this.”
Tom Hayes, Enterprise Ireland’s head of Entrepreneurship, added that the competition encourages students to team up with their colleagues and friends from other faculties, and to be innovative, collaborative and creative in coming up with products that will help them explore their ideas and own appetite for going into business for themselves.
Enterprise Ireland is asking students interested in entering the competition to submit a video that captures the greatness of their idea and shows its commercial and export potential.
Regional executives from Enterprise Ireland will be presenting the details of the competition to all colleges and institutions between now and the closing date for the competition, which is 17 March.
