The Business Plan Competition 2022 is now open, with a prize pool of over €60,000

After the conclusion of the first stage, the 'Ideas Competition', Tuesday 21 June saw the start of the 'Business Plan Competition' of Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta 2022, the 18^th edition of the competition for tomorrow's entrepreneurs. This year the total prize money exceeds 60,000 euros: up for grabs for the best innovative business projects are cash and service prizes, plus special mentions and the chance to take part in the Italian National Innovation Award 2022, known as PNI, at the end of November.

Organised as part of the PNI, the initiative is promoted by I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino, 2i3T, the Business Incubator of the University of Turin, and Enne3, the Business Incubator of Eastern Piedmont, with the aim of stimulating entrepreneurship and supporting economic development in the area. The competition is free of charge and is open to all aspiring entrepreneurs over the age of 18: proposals submitted both individually and in teams are eligible. One can participate in the second phase of the initiative by submitting an entrepreneurial project on the competition website, even without having participated in the first one. There are five application categories: Cleantech & Energy, ICT, Industrial, Life Sciences, Tourism and Cultural and Creative Industries.

The prizes

Thanks to the endowment made available by the promoters and supporters of the 2022 edition, as well as the support of the Piedmont Region through the European Social Fund, the best projects will be able to win three absolute prizes - 10,000 euros to the first classified, 7,500 euros to the second and 5,000 euros to the third - and several special prizes. These include:

• the Cuneo Prize, of €7,500, for the best Business Plan that establishes the company in the Province of Cuneo, sponsored by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo;

• the Valle d'Aosta Prize, of €7,500, for the best Business Plan that establishes the company in the Pépinières d'Entreprises of Aosta or Pont-Saint-Martin, sponsored by Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta;

• two Jacobacci & Partners Prizes, worth a total of €7,000, to be awarded to the two best Business Plans with intellectual property features on the basis of merit - Jacobacci 150 Gold Award, worth 5,000 euros, and Jacobacci Silver Award, worth 2,000 euros - in the form of consultancy services on the protection of trademarks, models and patents, offered by Jacobacci & Partners;

• the Space Economy Prize, of €7,500 for the best Business Plan proposing innovative products or services based on space technologies, with both upstream and downstream applications, offered by Distretto Aerospaziale Piemonte;

• the City of the Future and Sustainability Prize, of €7,500, of which €4,000 in cash and €3,500 in the form of technical services, for the best Business Plan proposing innovative products and/or services linked to sustainability, offered by Fondazione LINKS;

• the UniCredit Start Lab Prize, for the best Business Plan on the basis of the maturity of the entrepreneurial project, the market potential, the team's skills and the innovative characteristics of the startup finalists, consisting of a mentorship session during which it will be possible to assess the suitability of the project to be admitted to targeted content of the Start Lab programme, offered by Unicredit.

The list of awards that participants in the Business Plan Competition can win does not end there: there are also five special mentions, which cut across the award categories.

• "Equal Opportunities": for the best project of "Social enterprise in terms of equal opportunities" aimed at promoting the female entrepreneurship, whose definition requires that it meets at least one of the following criteria: women-led team or social structure; team or social structure containing at least 51% of women..

• "Social Innovation": for the best "Social Innovation" project, defined according to the criteria expressed by the Italian regulations for innovative startups..

• "Covid-19": for the best project that offers solutions to health crises caused by the spread of virus outbreaks through innovative products/services designed to protect human health, prevention, emergency management, data and information, economic recovery and health system strengthening.

• "Open Innovation / Industrial Spin-off": to the best project concerning innovative products and/or services coming from a joint research activity between a company and a University in Piedmont, Italy.

• "Climate Change": for the best project proposing innovative solutions related to climate, biodiversity, energy, mobility, economics and technology to combat climate change.

How to join the contest

It will be possible to register for Stage 2 of the competition until July 27 2022. The complete rules and the digital entry form are available on the competition website.

For more information, please write to info@startcup-piemonte-vda.it, while to stay up-to-date on all the news of the competition - in the current or future editions - you can follow the official social media channels on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, or subscribe to the dedicated newsletter via the form at the bottom of the site pages.