Competition terms
Who can apply?
Students of basic, master and PhD studies at universities in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro can apply for the Competition, as teams of 2-4 members. The researchers and professors can also be team members.
Confidentiality of information
When registering on the platform, every competitor will sign electronic version of Confidentiality Agreement. Having in mind that idea is submitted on the platform as business idea and idea shared with the team, it will be visible only to members of the team until it is sent to scoring.
In the history of each idea on the INNO platform, the owners and the time when the idea was posted is clearly defined, so the intellectual property rights are defined at the very beginning.
Once the team sends the idea to evaluation, everyone engaged in this process, starting from Reviewers (Business Support Office staff), Evaluation Committee members (professors, senior researchers, BI/STP representatives, student organization representatives) and Selection Committee members, will sign the Confidentiality Agreement which refers to all information received within the idea.
Support to competitors
Universities and business incubators will organize at least three training courses for the competitors, with several modules related to the entrepreneurship, innovation, intellectual property rights, business planning, financial management, etc. Participation in the training is obligatory for teams, i.e. at least one team member has to participate since these trainings will be focused on the development and preparation of the business plan.
Besides this, the mentoring will be provided for each team for a period of 4 hours per team. Mentors will be university professors, successful entrepreneurs and experts from business sector, depending on the idea.
Business Support Office staff will also be at the disposal of team members for consultations in different aspects of idea development and using of INNO platforms.
Evaluation
Once the idea is sent for evaluation, BSO`s staff will forward it to evaluators, depending on the idea type and area. Each evaluator will assess the business potential of the idea using defined set of criteria.
Since there will be three evaluators, the final score on the platform will be sum of average of the individual evaluators’ scores for each criteria, multiplied by absolute weight of each criteria. Based on these, a ranking list will be formed.
Six best ranked ideas on the local competition will go to the next stage (local pitch decks) and the score will have weight factor 40%.
Each WBC university will form local Selection Committee until March 2015 consisting of five members (2 members from local university, one from incubator and two visiting members from other universities). The Committee will evaluate seven-minute pitch deck presentations, which will have weight factor of 60%.
Two best teams from local competition will participate on the Regional Final Competition, where weight factor for previous local evaluation is 60%, and rest of the score (40%) will be evaluation of seven-minute final pitch deck.
Trainings
Since the ground for evaluation and rating of idea will be business plans, and in order for all competitors to have same support during the competition, start-up trainings that will be carried out by business incubators on WBCInno project (BIC, BINS, BITF, ICBL, BIPG) will have the same structure and content and will include four modules:
a. Business model development
b. Business model validation
c. Finance for start-ups
d. Elevator pitch
Universities will realize additional training events in the areas of innovations, intellectual property rights, creativity, i.e. the areas relevant for the submitted ideas and competitors’ needs.
1. Methodology Guide for Innovation
2. Intellectual Property Management
3. Creative Problem Solving