Have an amazing idea?
We can help you bring your idea to life.
Do you have a crazy idea? Is it an app or an invention? A plan to the make the campus and community better places? If so, the University of Alabama Community Affairs Board of Advisors wants to help you make it a reality.
The Community Affairs Innovation Grant is a new funding program established to bootstrap student business and initiatives into existence, offering grants of up to $5,000 for cross-campus ideas that foster a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Capstone. The point: give students resources to make their ideas real with no strings attached, so that students choose their own path to success and make the Capstone an even more innovative place.
A $5,000 Grand Prize will be given to the winner of our spring 2018 Pitch Competition. Awards of $2,500 each will be given to two runners-up.
What are we looking for?
In less than 1,000 words, we want to know...
Is the project unique? You should present research and be able to defend the novelty of the project.
Does your project create value? You should identify who benefits from your idea and quantify the value you are creating.
Does the project have a growth trajectory? You should illustrate a plan to distribute the idea, and expand it from its initial build.
Does your project have good design? You should articulate how your idea works and what makes it solid and dependable.
Your idea, market or implementation plan, and [???] should come together to demonstrate excellence in delivery.
Apply Here
Complete our application here!
Next Steps
What happens after I apply?
● A panel of judges will score your project based on the criteria outlined above.
● The scores will be ranked and, depending on the submissions, as many as 20 projects and the teams behind them will join the 2017–18 Innovation Scholars Cohort based on a ranking of scores of the project. Cohort members will receive a small amount of seed money to start making their idea reality.
● Cohort members will produce a complete prototype, a demonstration or proof of concept by XXXXXXXX, 2018, and pitch it to a new panel of judges at our XXXXX pitch competition.