The University of Connecticut will be hosting its annual Innovation Quest this semester, where students are given opportunities to develop their innovative ideas into a business.
There will be four virtual workshops that will provide participants access to mentors and give assistance and feedback in the beginning stages of their ideas. The first kickoff workshop will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m. You can register for the workshop on the Innovation Quest website. The subsequent workshops will be held on Feb. 14, Feb. 28 and Mar. 6 at 6:30 p.m.
The Innovation Quest (iQ) workshops, while not required, are highly encouraged for students who are interested in applying to the competition, according to their website.
The Innovation Quest competition is open to all UConn students, undergraduates and graduates, as well as alumni who have graduated within one year. There is no major requirement, as students from over 82 majors have represented nearly all of UConn’s Schools and Colleges since the first Innovation Quest in 2012, according to their website.
The competition application opens on Thursday, March 7, at 12 a.m. and closes on Wednesday, March 20, at 11:59 p.m. There is no cost to apply.
The top ten finalists will be given the opportunity to continue their journey into the summer with the inQbator program, a series of six intensive workshops over six weeks. These workshops will provide participants with a more in-depth crash course on how to get their businesses off the ground, according to their website. The program will run from May 8 to June 14. At the end of the program, the top plans will be funded. The first-place prize is $15,000, the second-place prize is $10,000 and the third-place prize is $5,000.
According to the Innovation Quest website, all potential projects and ideas will be considered for the competition. However, there are established criteria for students to obtain funding and go further in the quest.
The website said they prefer projects that demonstrate and validate the novel idea through prototypes, ideas with high potential for commercialization and ideas that are paradigm shifts to a broad new market.
Past finalists have gone to further their business in the real world. Raina Jain, winner of the 2021 Innovation Quest, created a “QueenBee” immune support supplement. Jain used the opportunities from iQ to propel an idea that began when she was in high school into a successful business.
Lexy Vecchio, winner of the 2022 Innovation Quest, created a video game called “Here There Be Bears” to help humanize the experiences of PTSD in an interactive media project that is part film, part escape room, part virtual reality video game.
“I’m grateful that Innovation Quest gave me access to the financial and educational resources to turn my mental-health game concept into a growing company, Ursa Mayhem Media,” Vecchio said in her testimonial, which can be found on the website. “iQ gives participants access to fantastic mentorship from business professionals willing to share their well-earned knowledge and guide participants into further business development.”
More information about the 2024 Innovation Quest can be found here.