Ready for the VU Kuyper Challenge? Convince me as a jury-member!

Have you been sitting on an amazing idea for a start-up but need help getting it off the ground? This is your chance! Convince us (and me as a member of the) jury of the Kuyper Challenge that your idea has what it takes to become a success, and win the seed money and coaching you need to get started.

Do you share Kuyper’s entrepreneurial spirit? Then sign up for the Kuyper Challenge, and you might take home the very first Kuyper Award! You don’t need to have an up-and-running start-up. A good idea will suffice. To sign up, send a one-page business plan plus a one-minute video pitch for your start-up to kuyperchallenge@vu.nl. The deadline is 1 December 2020. 

Conditions  
•    At least one third of the start-up must be owned by VU students, alumni and/or former or current PhD candidates.  
•    Participating alumni and former PhD candidates must have graduated or obtained a PhD from VU Amsterdam no more than five years ago.  
•    The prize money will be paid out to a legal entity registered with the Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of realizing the winning start-up.  

What can you win?  
The top three ideas will be officially nominated for the award and each earn 4,000 euros of seed capital, while the winner of the Kuyper Award is set to take home another 5,000 euros. In addition, all three nominated start-ups are invited to participate in a tailor-made coaching programme.  
An independent five-member jury presides over the nomination process, and the nominees will be announced at the VU New Year’s Gala in January. The winner will be revealed in May, as part of the Abraham Kuyper Lecture.  

The jury 
•    Ben Tiggelaar: behavioural scientist, international guest speaker and author of bestselling books on management 
•    Davide Iannuzzi: professor of Experimental Physics and designer and director of the Demonstrator Lab 
•    Marry de Gaay Fortman: lawyer, partner at Houthoff and former chairperson of Topvrouwen 
•    Melvin Tjoe Nij: founder of The Other Network and board member at VNO-NCW Metropool Amsterdam 
•    Piek Vossen: professor Computational Lexicology & Terminology Lab (CLTL), Winner of the Spinoza Price and member of the KNAW and the Network Instituut  

More info: https://www.vu.nl/en/news-agenda/agenda/oay/kuyper-challenge/index.aspx