The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is pleased to announce the HKUST- Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2018 (“Competition”) will take place in June 2018. The Competition will start with Exhibition and Elevator Pitch on Apr 17, 2018 (Tuesday) followed by a Business Plan Evaluation held on June 7, 2018 (Thursday).

Witnessing the growth of entrepreneurial activities in our region, the Competition aims to provide a platform for HKUST and surrounding community members an integrative learning experience to create and evaluate new business and to prepare students to start their future career in entrepreneurship. Winners of the Competition can use the cash prize as seed money to build their own company or to further the commercialization of their inventions. To encourage teams with plans utilizing HKUST technologies and/or have members from different schools within HKUST, they will be eligible for additional cash awards, if they are winners of the President, GF Securities Gold, or GF Securities Silver Awards at the Final Round of judging.

Further to help participants to form a team with those from local, mainland and international schools, this year we provide the Team Forming Platform for participants to find available team members with specific skills and build connection with them. For details, please refer section “Team Forming Platform” under “Application& Eligibility”.

Building on the success from last year, we will continue to have Focus Area Awards, which will be selected among all Round 1 entries. We will invite experts in the areas (e.g. Healthcare, Smart City, Robotics & AI, Environment & Sustainability, Materials, Fintech and Social Services & Enterprise) to select, among all the Round 1 entries the awardees to receive the award and keep developing their ideas. For details, please refer to the Awards section. We have also doubled up our awards in the Student Team Award, where there will be 2 teams composed of HKUST full time students selected for this award. Additionally, we will continue to have this competition in 5 different regions including this one in our Clear Water Bay Campus. The 3 winning teams will then compete with other winning teams from Beijing, Guangzhou, Macau and Shenzhen in the Grand Final, which will be held in August 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou. And the top 12 teams will all be invited to join the exhibition held during the Grand Final.

Participants: The Competition is open to all full-time and part-time students at all levels, post- docs, alumni, researchers, faculty and staff from all departments within HKUST. It is also open to local, mainland and international schools who want to compete in this Competition under the condition that the team must have at least one HKUST faculty or student or alumni or staff.

Submissions: All submissions will be in English and must be submitted online ( http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk ), no paper entries will be accepted. There will not be a limit on the topics for submission, however, we encourage applicants to focus on the technology and innovation driven business. The topics can be related to nanotechnology, information technology, renewable energy, environment, healthcare, financial services, logistics and social enterprise. For submission details, please refer to “Application & Eligibility”, “Submission Rules”.

Judging Process: The assessment process consists of 3 rounds: Executive Summary, Short Business Plan and Full Business Plan Presentation which will take place from March to June 2018. For details of the judging process, please refer to “Judging Process”. Awards: Winners of the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2018 will be awarded with cash prizes. The Competition will also provide the participants a chance to introduce their business plans to an international panel of investors and executives, while making a name for themselves within the HKUST community and in Hong Kong.

Awards: Winners of the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2018 will be awarded with cash prizes. The Competition will also provide the participants a chance to introduce their business plans to an international panel of investors and executives, while making a name for themselves within the HKUST community and in Hong Kong.

Application Deadline: We invite interested parties to submit their online applications and 2- page Executive Summary of their business plan for the Round 1 Assessment on or before March 22, 2018.

Exhibition & Elevator Pitch

Come to our exhibition and choose the best exhibition on site! Shortlisted teams will have an exhibition in HKUST campus. The Exhibition is a half-day event and is open to HKUST community, public, venture capitalists, investors and angels to give score for the best exhibition on site. The total scoring of this part will contribute 20% of Round 2 Assessment. The Elevator Pitch will take place after the exhibition. Each Team will make a 90-second elevator pitch in front of a Judging Panel.

Exhibition
Date & Time: Apr 17, 2018 (Tuesday) 11:00 - 16:30
Venue: Academic Concourse (outside LTJ), HKUST

Elevator Pitch
Date & Time: Apr 17, 2018 (Tuesday) 17:00 - 18:30
Venue: LTJ, HKUST

Registration: Please click HERE to register for the Exhibition or Elevator Pitch.

Voting for Elevator Pitch

The center will do video recording during the Elevator Pitch for online voting. The voting for the Elevator Pitch will be open to public from April 23, 2018 to May 27, 2018.
Date & Time: Apr 23, 2018 to May 27, 2018
Videos for Elevator Pitch: Link

Live Broadcasting for Award Ceremony

The award ceremony will take place on Jun 8, 2018. Honorable guests, representatives of sponsor will be there to unveil the award winners of the competition. To let more people share the wonderful moment, this year we also provide live broadcasting for the ceremony.
Date & Time: Jun 8, 2018, 20:45
Link of the Live Broadcasting: Competition Website or Facebook Page

For details of the competition, please refer to our website: http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk

And you are welcome to ask questions via competition@ust.hk

We look forward to your active participation.