The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship will host the U.S. Department of Energy's annual Cleantech University Prize national competition next week at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business.
Twenty-two winning teams from eight regional DOE competitions held earlier this year will present their business plans June 28 to nearly 100 judges hailing from the energy, clean-tech and investment sectors.
The teams, consisting of students from some of the top universities in the United States, will compete for $135,000 in prizes sponsored by the DOE.
An additional $35,000 prize from the Department of Defense will be awarded to the best clean-tech startup in operational energy for defense applications, as judged by representatives from the department.
The DOE’s Cleantech University Prize aims to inspire and equip the next generation of clean-energy entrepreneurs and innovators by providing competitive funding for business development, commercialization training and other educational opportunities. At the regional and national competitions, teams go through detailed training in due diligence and leveraging resources in addition to pitching their companies to investors, which helps students develop skills to move their technologies from the discovery phase to the marketplace.