Application Deadline: February 13th 2018
The Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) is open to applicants worldwide and offers a tremendous opportunity to entrepreneurs and investors alike. The Competition includes a path for Ventures (opening January 2018), as well as a path for Ideas (check back in 2018). In offering multiple prizes and prize categories, the EBPC attracts innovative ideas in education from around the world, ranging from those structured on local or global needs, public or private issues, Pre-K through adult education, and social or for-profit ventures.
Competition Themes:
- Urban Education
- Connecting Research to Practice
- Teaching & Learning
- Technology in Grades K through 12
- Special Education & At-Risk Students
- Open & Collaborative Solutions: The Education Ecosystem
- Online & Distance Learning in Higher Education
- Global/Borderless Education Solutions
- Early Childhood Education
- Workforce Learning
Two Tracks: Ventures and Ideas
As of the 2017 Competition, the Venture and Idea paths of the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition will run in series rather than concurrently (but both paths do still exist!). If your innovation is further along in its development, the Venture path opens for submissions in early January 2018. Applicants in the Venture path are expected to already have or plan to generate revenue, grants, customers, or investors.
The Idea Path, aimed at entrepreneurs in the early stages of ideation or product/service development, recently held its IdeaFest competition finals in conjunction with the Reimagine Education Awards & Conference in December 2017. Applicants in the Idea path are expected to be pre-revenue and pre-investment.
Eligibility
Any individual is eligible to enter the Competition by submitting an Entry (defined below), except the following individuals are not eligible:
- Anyone who is under 18 years old;
- Any Competition judge;
- Anyone who previously was awarded a prize in this Competition. (However, if a previous winner wants to enter a new educational entrepreneurship business plan, which the University determines, in its sole opinion and determination, is unrelated to the previous winning educational entrepreneurship business plan, then the previous winning Applicant may do so, subject to his or her or its compliance with all of the other eligibility requirements.);
- Anyone for whom it would be illegal to enter this Competition in his or her legal jurisdiction of residence;
- Any Graduate School of Education faculty, lecturer, administrator, staff, or other employee. (Note: Faculty, lecturers, administrators, staff, employees, and students from the University of Pennsylvania and its schools, centers and institutes, other than the Graduate School of Education, may enter the Competition, provided that he or she has first disclosed his or her product or service or technology or concept or intellectual property to the University’s Penn Center for Innovation or its successor (“Penn PCI”), using the disclosure form required by Penn PCI, in order for Penn PCI to determine whether the University has an ownership interest in such product or service or technology or concept or intellectual property by virtue of its intellectual property and employment policies.
Prizes
Venture Path:
- Milken Family Foundation Grand Prize: $40,000
- American Public University System Prize: $20,000
- ChanceLight Behavioral Health & Education Prize: $20,000
- Venture Path Prize: $20,000
Entries
- To enter the Competition, an eligible Applicant must submit all of the required materials (an “Entry”).
- A subset of these Applicants will be selected as finalists in the Competition, and invited to present the business plan orally at the University, before judges.
- The Competition may choose to hold one or more Competition paths, including an Idea path, a Venture path, or both. Applicants may enter the Idea path, the Venture path, or both.
- A business plan based upon an idea or concept that has been previously published is eligible, provided the Applicant discloses the previous publication(s).
- All entries must be submitted in the English language.
Timeline: 2018 Venture Path Timeline
Competition open for submissions.
Application period closes.
Venture Path Finalists announced.
Live Competition Finals
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition