Online Start-up Idea Competition: Go Green, Go Digital, Go Start-Up!

The Europe Direct Information Centre (EDIC) Nicosia, the European Documentation Centre University of Nicosia (EDC-UNIC) and the European Documentation Centre University of Cyprus (EDC-UCY) are proud to announce the “Go Green, Go Digital, Go Start-up!”  Online Start-up Idea Competition for Cyprus-based young people between 18-35 years old.

The aim is to support and encourage young people to develop and expand creative and innovative business ideas within the scope of EU ideals on Innovation in Technology, contributing to  its climate neutral objective. Along with technological gadgets, we aspire to offer the opportunity to young people to expand their network of contacts and encourage new collaborations.

The competition will reward young people with business ideas relevant to the European Commission’s Green Deal and Digital Agenda. Potential applicants are invited to submit their start-up ideas within the scope of both themes on ‘Innovation in Technology’ and ‘Climate Neutral EU’.

Relevance:

Europe is evolving and current and future business need to adapt to succeed, especially in the face of a global pandemic with periods of lockdown and the von der Leyen Commission’s objective of the EU becoming climate neutral. The competition was designed to prepare youth for these changes when developing their start-up ideas.

Following the strict lockdown imposed as a measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Cyprus, it is of great importance to offer support and encouragement to young people with great ideas to build and expand their business ideas. We aspire to provide winners with technology to assist digitalising work practices.

As the competition does not offer monetary prizes, but rather technological tools, there will be no follow-up to ensure the concepts are implemented or realized. The purpose of the competition is to invite young people to think creatively and submit concepts which they can then build on to seek for funding opportunities and realize their ideas

Organizers:

Europe Direct Information Centre (EDIC) Nicosia

Tel: +357 99593919 / +90 548 856 3032

Email:  [email protected]

Website: https://europedirectnicosia.eu/

European Documentation Centre University of Nicosia (EDC-UNIC)

Tel: +357 22842104

Email:  [email protected]

Website: https://edc.library.unic.ac.cy

European Documentation Centre University of Cyprus: EDC-UCY

Telephone: +357 22 895175

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://library.ucy.ac.cy/en/services/european-documentation-centre

Judges:

Professor Angelika Kokkinaki

Dean of the School of Business and MBA Director, University of Nicosia

Dr. Daina Nicolaou

Lecturer in the Department of Business Administration and Public Administration, University of Cyprus

Hasan Siber

Founder and CEO of COLIVE OIL

Steven W. Stavrou & Burak Berk Doluay

Co-Founders of Cyprusinno.com

Angelos Parmatzias

CEO, C.I.P. Citizens in Power

Prizes:

The best start-up idea as well as two runners up will be awarded with technology that will assist in the initial stages and implementation of their idea.

First prize: Lenovo ThinkPad 14” 512 GB SSD

Second prize: Apple iPad 7 Gen 10.2″ 32GB Wi-Fi

Third prize: Smartwatch HUAWEI GT2 Classic 46mm

Main Questions:

Applicants need to submit their responses to the following questions via Google Forms. Each question has a character limit of 1800-characters.

  • What is the basic concept of your start-up idea?
  • How does your idea match to the European Commission’s Green Deal?
  • How does your idea match to the European Commission’s Digital Agenda?
  • What is the environmental impact of your proposed start-up idea?
  • What is the social impact of your proposed start-up idea?

*The competition will be held in English.

Deadline for Participants submissions:

11 January 2021

Announcement of Winners:

27 January 2021

Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions are subject to revision due to extraneous post competition results.

Eligibility & Application

  • Applications will be accepted from individuals or teams with a maximum of 3 members.
  • Applicants must be between the ages of 18 to 35 and reside in Cyprus.
  • An individual cannot be a member of more than one group.
  • Each group is entitled to submit only one idea and it must be the original work of the applicants.
  • By submitting the start-up idea, you represent and warrant to the challenge that you have all right, title and/or interest in the start-up idea submitted and the information it contains is accurate and complete, and that by submitting the document to the competition you are not and will not be violating any contract or third-party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy right.
  • As the competition does not offer monetary prizes, but rather technological tools, there will be no follow up to ensure the concepts are implemented or realized.

Selection & Evaluation Criteria

  • The Judging Panel will award points to submission entries based on the following criteria:
    • Innovation & Creativity (25%)
    • Adherence to theme & Feasibility (25%)
    • Quality of submission (25%)
    • Environmental & Social impact (25%)
  • The Judging Panel of the competition reserves the right to disqualify any entry that in its judgment violates the letter or the spirit of the competition guidelines, processes and rules of the competition.

Consent

  • By entering the Competition, you agree that we may collect, store and share, within the context of the competition, the information submitted.
  • The winners, hereby, agree to the use of their name and prize for online posting, and any advertising and publicity without additional compensation.
  • By accepting these rules and participating to the competition, the Applicant explicitly allows the hosts of the competition to use data in the context of the competition, both for its organization and promotion.