big ideas competition, uc berkeley

Big Ideas is an early-stage university-based innovation contest that connects studentsthe worlds next generation of social entrepreneurswith the mentorship, training, and resources needed to successfully conceptualize, deploy, and scale social innovations. Big Ideas plugs student entrepreneurs into a robust innovation ecosystem of high-caliber mentors, academics, scientists, tech experts, industry leaders, and investors, enabling them to access the full spectrum of resources needed to bring their ideas to fruition. The program is a time-tested, highly effective mechanism to connect with this generationto meet them at the place and time in their lives when they are most ready to take on a challenge and to give them the skills, tools and opportunities for achieving great impact now and throughout their lives. Each November, students submit their solutions for the worlds most pressing social and development challenges to Big Ideas. Proposals are vetted, and promising concepts are refined and nurtured over a year-long process of advising, mentorship, and development. In May, winners are selected, and the top social innovations are reviewed by multidisciplinary panels of industry experts, with winning teams receiving seed funding ranging from $2,000-$15,000. Since 2006, Big Ideas has invested a total of $2M of seed funding across 435 ventures. That funding, coupled with the support of the Big Ideas ecosystem, has enabled teams to demonstrate milestones on their projects that have attracted over $300M in additional funding. One dollar invested by Big Ideas has leveraged one hundred and forty dollars to further the ideas of student entrepreneurs.