The prizes will recognise the ‘best business project’, the ‘best project with social impact’ and the ‘best research project with academic excellence’ of EIMT students of the UOC.
The third year of the UOC-RMF Prizes aim to inspire and encourage great ideas that help to improve society. The Ramon Molinas Foundation and the Open University of Catalonia are once again awarding prizes to highlight the best projects of students on the Information Technology, Multimedia and Telecommunications programmes (EIMT) at UOC, with the objective of encouraging technological and scientific entrepreneurship.
The prizes are split into three categories: The UOC-RMF Prize for best business project’ will strengthen and support the most innovative entrepreneurial initiative among the EIMT students at UOC, the ‘UOC-RMF Prize for the project with best social impact’ will highlight the idea which impacts most positively on society and could contribute to the largest gains in social transformation and progress, and lastly, the ‘UOC-RMF Prize for best research project with academic excellence’ will recognise the best research and university project from an academic point of view that has the highest potential for future impact of its university cohort.
The students who decide to submit their projects to the UOC-RMF Prizes competition can enter their project into the category that they believe best suits their project material, from the 13th July to the 7th September. From the 7th September, a judging panel made up of academics and professionals linked to entrepreneurship and the IT sector will evaluate the projects presented and will select 27, from which they will choose the six that will go through to the final. The finalists selected will present their project at an event which will take place the following month of December in Barcelona. Once the cycle of presentations has finished, the panel will select the three winning projects, one per category, whose authors will receive a cheque for 3,000 euros each.
27 finalists will have the opportunity to make their project a reality
The third year of the UOC-RMF Prizes will not only recognise the work of the six finalists. This year, the Ramon Molinas Foundation and the Open University of Catalonia will provide the opportunity for 27 finalists to make their projects a reality.
Thanks to Hubbik, a collaborative community created by UOC to foster innovative projects and support the transfer of knowledge, the students with the top 25 projects will have the opportunity to participate in a series of entrepreneurial and innovation workshops organised by the platform. During the workshops, which are made up of three sessions of four hours each, participants will work on defining their business model, marketing strategy, commercialisation and financing. Once the training has finished, a judging panel made up of Hubbik staff will choose six students who, according to their capabilities and the potential social impact and success of their project, will continue working with the platform and have access to personalised training. A mentor will help them to resolve any problems or needs linked to their projects, and will advise them on legal issues, financing, structural organisation, human resources, marketing, sales and communication, among others.
After completing this stage, three of the students will take part in a programme to help their projects grow, in which they’ll receive 30 hours of support to help their projects become a reality. Finally, one of them will have the opportunity to participate in SpinUOC 2018 and another will attend the 4Y4N of the Mobile World Congress 2018.
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