Department of Engineering / News / Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2017 now open for entries

Department of Engineering

Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2017 now open for entries

Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2017 now open for entries

Celebrating young sustainability innovators

If you’ve got an initiative, product or service already in action that’s tackling a sustainability problem, or you know someone else whose brilliant work deserves recognition, we want to hear from you.

Now in its fourth year, this competition for young entrepreneurs supports and celebrates inspirational young people aged between 18 – 35 from around the world who are tackling some of the planet’s biggest sustainability challenges with new existing initiatives, products or services. It is delivered by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in partnership with Unilever.

Unilever and CISL believe that the ingenuity and determination of the younger generation is critical in helping to identify sustainable solutions to the problems facing the world today and in the future. We see the awards as a big opportunity: to support, inspire, reward and collaborate with a new generation of the world’s most brilliant young change-makers; innovators who are the future of sustainability.

The Awards programme to date has reached over 100 countries, engaged with over 2250 young entrepreneurs, and resulted in 21 finalists. Previous entries have ranged from digital healthcare for female-only medical clinics in Pakistan, to a waste management solution converting kilos of household waste into health insurance in Indonesia.

Following an intensive selection process overseen by CISL, the eight finalists will head to Cambridge for an accelerator programme, where they will work with experts from CISL, Unilever and other guest experts. They will also gain the opportunity to pitch to a final judging panel to win the overall prize, ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize,’ alongside a 50,000 Euro cash award and a tailored yearlong mentoring package to take forward their initiative.

Entering the competition

If you’ve got an initiative, product or service already in action that’s tackling a sustainability problem, or you know someone else whose brilliant work deserves recognition, we want to hear from you. We are looking for innovative and scalable technologies or initiatives that are contributing to one or more of these four categories: 

  • Farm to table
  • Opportunities for women
  • Waste
  • Water

The competition is open until 30 June. The finalists will be announced in September, and the winners will be announced in November. For more information, and to enter the competition, visit: http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/about/who-we-work-with/young-entrepreneurs. 

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