The CVC-AEIS Innovation Challenge 2022 is now open for young innovators from Nigerian universities. Apply now as you and your team can win up to 3 million Naira.
The CVC-AEIS Innovation Challenge is in line with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) innovation direction to deepen and amplify technology solutions, to create employment through bankable cohorts of businesses who are from the university system. Innovators will be from the university system in Nigeria and will provide unique impact solutions to the focus challenge areas of this competition.
Focus Areas
- Agriculture: Prioritize yield improvement, storage, processing, and cut down post-harvest losses. Target crop value chains are – maize, rice, cowpea, soya bean, and aquaculture.
- Environment: Your solutions should deploy renewable energy, creatively impacting a large market in Nigeria & climate action in delivery.
- ICT (emerging tech & IoT): To be considered, your submission must solve a Nigerian or African problem leveraging emerging technologies and the IoT’s massive complex of solutions.
- Security: Nigeria faces a myriad of security challenges relating to different sectors. Pick one and work on a viable solution.
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Programme Benefits
The top three finalists will receive the following rewards.
- First – ₦3,000,000
- Second- ₦2,000,000
- Third – ₦1,000,000
All winners, runners ups and participants with viable innovative solutions will gain the following benefits from the competition sponsors and other stakeholders in this challenge:
- 100% scholarship for all participants to product-lab training in your solution/startup of choice.
- 100% scholarship for all participants to enterprise-lab training incubating your solution/business of choice.
- Free access to Nationwide Conference and Tech Ecosystem event which shall bring together university functionaries, innovation experts, applicants, public and private government, agencies and investor groups from across Africa.
- Access to innovation acceleration, investment readiness training programs and funding linkages
Nationwide visibility for your business/solution
Access to development and networking support - Access to Pan-African and global investor cohorts during, and post-competition regardless of rank in the competition.
Eligibility Criteria
- Your solution must come from any of these four areas or a hybrid of them, namely: Agriculture, Environment, ICT (emerging tech & IoT); and Security.
- Individual applications will be disqualified. The application must be as a team (not less than 2 founding members). Student-staff innovation collaboration is allowed. Any team that is applying must include students and university staff. The team must also contain at least one female founder or co-founder. Ideal Team = Univ staff + University (undergraduate or postgraduate) where one of the core team leaders is female.
- Applications will consider equal representation from the six (6) geo-political zones of Nigeria.
- Solutions in the MVP and Post-MVP stage will be considered. Early-stage innovation solutions with a clear pathway to profit will also be considered. However, MVP and Post-MVP solutions stand the highest chance of scaling through to the top. Get creative! Get Innovative!
- All solutions must be an inclusive business that puts women and youths (18-35) at the forefront and must have the core team comprising up to 40% women.
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Only the Top 300 most innovative solutions from across Nigeria will get into the programme. If your application into the challenge is successful, you will receive an email from the organisers. If you do not get an email, it means your application did not meet the requirements to join this challenge. However, you will be part of the CVC Ecosystem Tech Conference so watch out for that email.
Application deadline: August 4, 2022. Click here to apply or visit the official website of the programme https://aeis-challenge.ng/#criteria.
Image credit: aeis-challenge.ng
