The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is pleased to announce the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2019 (“Competition”) will take place in June 2019. The Competition includes an Exhibition and Elevator Pitch on Apr 16, 2019 (Tuesday) followed by a Business Plan Evaluation held on June 3, 2019 (Monday).

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, Gold, or Silver Awards at the Final Round of judging.

Further to help participants to form a team with those from other local, mainland and international universities and communities, we will continue to provide the Team Forming Platform for participants to find available team and team members with specific skills and build connection with them. To encourage more diverse team combinations with different cultures and backgrounds, if teams are combined of HKUST students and members from overseas university or organization (e.g. incubator) which enter to Round 2 or Round 3 Assessment, this year we will support HKUST students traveling to the overseas university or organization to work with their overseas team members for their prototype and business plan development. Please refer to the section “Team Forming Platform” under “Application & Eligibility” for more details of the team forming platform, and “Funding Opportunities for Overseas Collaboration” for more details of the support of overseas trip.

After having devoted the past few years to connecting HKUST startup teams to the community through the competition, we are delighted to have recognition from Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) this year. The top 6 teams which enter the Final Round will be entitled to join the HKSTP Science and Technology Entrepreneur Programme (STEP), given that the teams can meet its basic admission criteria. STEP is a one-year programme designed to nurture tech-focused entrepreneurs to become successful startups and help turning the teams’ brilliant ideas into reality. For details, please refer to “Team Eligibility for STEP Programme” under “Application & Eligibility”. Additionally, we will continue to have this competition in 7 different regions including this one in our Clear Water Bay Campus. The 3 winning teams will compete with other winning teams from Beijing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen and Zhongshan in the Grand Final, which will be held in August 2019 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 2019. For details of the judging process, please refer to “Judging Process”.

Awards: Winners of the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2019 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 21, 2019.

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 16, 2019 (Tuesday) 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Venue: Academic Concourse (outside LTJ & LTK), HKUST

Elevator Pitch
Date & Time: Apr 16, 2019 (Tuesday) 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Venue: LTG, 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. Elevator Pitch Award will be decided based on scores given by Judging Panel (80%) and Online Voting (20%).
Date & Time: April 22, 2018 to May 26, 2018
Videos for Elevator Pitch: Link

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.