The biennial China College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition was launched in 1999. Over the past years, it has evolved into the largest and most influential college students’ entrepreneurship competition in China. The 2016 edition attracted more than 100,000 entries from 2,000-plus higher education institutions nationwide, raised roughly 862 million yuan worth of venture capital investments, and invited 18 business incubators to provide direct services.
In order to diversify international exchanges, competition and cooperation in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, enhance international integration and development in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship education, promote the transfer of international innovation technology and the connection of overseas venture projects, an international invitational competition is specially set up to attract the participation of international elite universities and outstanding youths. The detailed information is specified as follows:
1. Theme
Innovation for a New Era
2. Organizers
The competition is co-sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, China’s Ministry of Education, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the China Association for Science and Technology, All-China Students’ Federation and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. It is organized by Zhejiang University. The Organizing Committee, the Advisory Committee, the Evaluation Committee and the Supervision Committee are set up to ensure an orderly and fair competition.
III. Participants
Full-time students admitted to college before June 1, 2018, and college graduates from full-time programs within three years of graduation from June 1, 2015, from both home and abroad, are eligible to participate in the competition.
All participating projects will be divided into two categories in accordance with the development phase: entrepreneurship proposals and newly-established enterprises. The project which enters for the entrepreneurship proposal shall own or acquire an authorized ownership of a particular product or service, build a core team, and meet the basic requirements for a start-up business. It, however, will not have come into operation or completed its industrial and commercial registration by June 15, 2018. In contrast, a newly-established enterprise, which owns or acquires an authorized ownership of a particular product or service, will have come into operation or completed its industrial and commercial registration before June 15, 2018.
The Organizing Committee plans to invite the world’s top 100 universities, elite universities in such countries along the Belt & Road Initiative, as well as top-notch universities from such BRICS countries.
IV. Requirements
All participating projects shall focus on relevant industries in artificial intelligence, Internet technology innovation, big data, information technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy and new materials.
Projects shall be authentic, wholesome and legal without any negative information. They shall not infringe others’ intellectual property rights. In regard to authorized inventions, patents, or proprietary technologies, contestants shall submit photocopies of authorization certificates, project identification certificates or patent certificates. For newly-established enterprises, they shall submit relevant credentials. Contestants shall design or manage projects on their own rather than appropriate others’ projects. Once contestants are involved in any misconduct, such as plagiarism, misappropriation, provision of false materials, or violation of relevant laws and regulations, they will become disqualified by default and shall accept any legal liability.
V. Schedules
1. Registration spans from May to mid-July. Each university is entitled to submit no more than 2 projects for the competition in such forms as a project application form, a business plan and a powerpoint file either in Chinese or in English. They shall be submitted to CCSEC2018@163.com before July 15.
2. The preliminary competition spans from July to Auguest. 30% of the projects will be selected into the finals via the evaluation of submitted documents.
3. The submission phase for the finals spans from Auguest to September. Finalists shall submit their final projects in the form of a business plan and a powerpoint file. All materials and presentations shall be delivered in English. Aids, including animated films, videos, and graphics, can be incorporated for a more interesting and meaningful illustration.
4. The finals will be tentatively fixed on late-October. Finalists shall deliver English oral defenses at Zhejiang University. Gold, silver and bronze awards will be presented with a cash prize of 3,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
No more than 2 team members will be allowed to participate in the finals, and 1 instructor can be present for each university. The Organizing Committee will reimburse contestants for international travel expenses (economy-class flights only and the maximum amount of reimbursement shall not exceed 10,000 yuan per person) and accommodation expenses during the finals. Payment will be reimbursed according to the actual expenses, and the procedures for arrivals and departures will be handled by contestants themselves. The instructor shall pay for his or her own international travel expenses while the Organizing Committee will pay for his or her accommodation during the finals.
5. During the finals, contestants can participate in entrepreneurship forums, visit innovation and entrepreneurship fairs and experience the culture of Zhejiang entrepreneurs. They can also engage in dialogues with rising stars in innovation and entrepreneurship, display innovation and entrepreneurship achievements, conduct investment and financing negotiations, and visit such famous Zhejiang-based enterprises as Alibaba.
VI. Relevant agreements
1. Intellectual property rights reserved by contestants
The ownership of the participating projects will not be reserved by organizers. Any intellectual property rights shall be protected by contestants themselves. Contestants shall ensure that the project does not involve any technology that hinders the commercialization of the project or any technology owned by a third party.
2. Limited liability
The Organizing Committee does not assume the responsibility for the following scenarios: (1) any inaccurate information due to contestants’ own errors, misprints or other mistakes, or that caused by any equipment or program pertinent to the competition; (2) any type of technical failures, including, but not limited to, glitches, interferences or disconnections associated with the telephone line or the network hardware/software; (3) any unauthorized human intervention in the competition; (4) the delay, loss, damage or hacking of any e-mail; (5) the claim of any contestant that his or her participating project is similar to a particular technology or product that is independently developed by organizers or submitted by a third party (including other participants) as a competing project.
3. Disputes
All disputes involved in the contest, as well as the rights and obligations of the contestants and the Organizing Committee, shall be resolved and interpreted in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations.
In any case, contestants shall not be allowed to file a claim for indirect, punitive, incidental, consequential damages and any other damages incurred.
The Organizing Committee of the China College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition 2018 reserves the right to interpret any rule, term and condition in this Notice.
VII. Contact information
Should you have any query, please feel free to contact WANG Weihe at +86 571 88206213 or by email (wangweihe@zju.edu.cn).
Attachment: Project application form
