Many startup competitions with highly attractive prizes are now open to Vietnamese students and pupils, including those from Da Nang.

Sponsored by the Global Innovation through Science and Technology initiative (GIST), a U.S. government programme on innovation and entrepreneurship, the Green Startup Bootcamp 2021 competition aims to create an opportunity for startups in the environmental sector to bring their ideas to fruition for the sake of environmental protection, and strong and sustainable development of humans.

Pupils and students aged from 12 – 22, organisations and enterprises active in environmental protection schemes across Viet Nam are totally eligible to join this competition.

The prizes totalling 300 million VND will be awarded to best entries.

With regard to the event’s timeline, applications are being accepted until 6 February at https://gsb.spaceshare.vn/dangky.

Another highly inviting startup event is Social Business Creation (SBC) organised by HEC Montréal, in Canada.

This is a global competition and an innovative training platform through which participants learn about how to use market mechanisms to solve social challenges.

From a social mission idea at the beginning of the competition, participants will learn how to create profitable businesses with strong social impacts. Besides the rich learning experience, participants will get chances to win several prizes in cash, services, and scholarships to participate in SBC programme.

As for its format, the competition is structured as a course series which provides experiential learning and uses a gamification approach to enhance students’ learning experience while developing a social business project. This competition offers a win-win platform that allows for bottom-up development.

To be eligible, each team must include at least one university student (at any level, programme, and discipline).

All members of participating teams must pay their nonrefundable administration fee to access SBC training, make presentations, and receive certificates and prizes (if their team wins).

Deadline for entry submissions which must be made at https://bitly.com.vn/srsyek is 28 February is 28 February.

For further information on this large-scale startup event, please visit https://socialbusinesscreation.hec.ca.

By MINH LE – Translated by A.T