The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from MBA and college students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. The Prize is a partnership between Hult International Business School and the United Nations Foundation.

Previous topics that have been dished out as part of the competition include:

1. Harnessing the Power of Energy

2. Refugees – Re-awakening Human Potential

3. Crowded Urban Spaces

4. Early Childhood Education

5. The Global Food Crisis

This initiative is open to students of all colleges and universities from across the world, making it one of the biggest student-centered events of its kind. It is one of the world’s biggest engines for the launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from universities around the world. Each year thousands of college and university students from 150+ countries participate, and since its inception, participants have represented 1,000+ institutions of higher education. In 2018, 115,000 students from over 100 countries competed for the coveted Hult Prize.

How The Wheels Are Set In Motion:

Each year the announcement of the topic sets heralds the arrival of the competition. Every year a new area is chosen to be explored (for the challenge), with the primary criteria for topics being “transformative and sustainable business”.

The Hult Prize takes place in 4 stages :

Stage 1: On Campus

The On-Campus Program brings the prize directly to universities around the world. The local championship gives the university’s winning team the chance to bypass the general round, and guarantees a direct entry into one of the regional finals. A student who participated in the Hult Prize Challenge 2019 told us, “ The On Campus round mainly consists of pitching your idea to a panel, along with a presentation which summarizes your work plan. The round also gives you an opportunity to get a general idea about how the other participants have tackled the issue and what various strategies are being implemented in solving the challenge at hand.”

Stage 2: Regionals

The Hult Prize Regionals is a National Level Competition held in March. Regionals takes place in 17 countries including India, Japan, China, Belgium, UK, etc. From the 100,000 students who compete initially, only 5,000 snag a seat at these 2-day regional summits. The Top 50 Hult Prize startups qualify to the next round.

Stage 3: Accelerator

The very best startups represented at each regional summit secure a spot in the world’s largest accelerators for impact in Boston, Massachusetts and Hult’s castle in the UK. The startups spend six weeks in the accelerator. There the participants are mentored and undergo a tailor made 5-week program, that focuses on team building, sales, marketing and resource mapping.

Stage 4: Global Finals

The Global Finals are hosted by the United Nations in New York. Selected teams from the Hult Accelerator program get a chance to present their ideas to the jury which generally consists of UN representatives, previous winners of the Hult Prize, politicians, and CEOs of Non-Governmental organizations working in fields related to that year’s topic, during the Global Finals in September.

The Loot You Get to Keep:

The Hult family — founders of EF Education First — donates USD 1 million in seed capital, to help the winning team launch a social enterprise. Who Can Compete: Students from any college or university in the world are invited to form teams of 3-4. Individuals who cannot form a team, but are interested in competing, can join the Facebook community to find other individuals who are looking to form teams. The Application Process: Teams can apply online for entry into the Regional Finals through hultprize.org or compete in a locally organized Hult Prize On-Campus event, where the winner will bypass the application round and be guaranteed a place into one of 25+ Regional Finals. The interested students of IIT Roorkee can go through the On-Campus Hult Prize program where they would have to present their ideas to a panel of judges.

The On-Campus At Hand:

This year’s topic is “Build Startups That Have a Net Impact on Environment”, where the idea is to look for transformative new models that make a positive impact on the environment with every sale completed, every dollar earned and every decision made.

To know more about this year’s On-Campus event, please visit the following link : http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee

Or visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/

To know more about this year’s topic visit: https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/

Too Long;Didn’t Read:

Hult Prize is an annual competition aimed at crowd sourcing innovative ideas and rewarding them with seed capital. It seeks to promote sustainable business solutions that tackle social and environmental issues. In 2018, 115,000 students from over 100 countries participated in the Hult Prize, competing for a total of $5m in prize money. The Hult Prize takes place in 4 stages :

Stage 1: On Campus

Stage 2: Regionals

Stage 3: Accelerator

Stage 4: Grand Finals

Students from any college or university in the world are invited to form teams of 3-4. Individuals who cannot form a team, but are interested in competing, can join the Facebook community to find other individuals who are looking to form teams. The interested students of IIT Roorkee can go through the On-Campus Hult Prize program where they would have to present their ideas to a panel of judges. Register at hultprize.org .

To know more visit the following link : http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee

https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/