NEWSROOM

Explaining the Velocity Innovation Challenge – The power of a great idea

7 April 2022

The University of Auckland’s annual Velocity Innovation Challenge, which gives students and staff the opportunity to win $1,000 for 1,000 words articulating an idea for a start-up, is now open. Director of the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Darsel Keane explains why the competition exists.

What is the Velocity Innovation Challenge?

“The Innovation Challenge is one of two big competitions run by the student-led Velocity entrepreneurship development programme, supported by CIE. Entrants are asked to fill in a template with their idea for a venture. Winners receive $1,000 to do with as they please and we have a prize pool of $20,000 this year so plenty of opportunities to win. There are prize categories for best academic, social and commercial entries.”

Why does the University run this competition?

“CIE exists to unleash the potential of University of Auckland students and staff to help realise New Zealand’s social, environmental and economic potential. We do this through numerous initiatives. The Velocity programme has hundreds of participants overall every year and the Innovation Challenge is a key competition within Velocity as it is easy-entry. I love that there are categories for social, commercial and academic based ideas, making it inclusive of people with a variety of interests and backgrounds.

We hope that it sparks a passion for innovation in our University community and is such a good prompt to explore problem-solving, which is the basis of entrepreneurship. Many entrants then go on to workshop and explore their idea further through the Velocity $100k Challenge, which is held later in the year. CIE also run programmes such as Ask an Expert, Mentor sessions and Start-up Studio which offers co-working space, so there are many other opportunities to develop skills and networks to help bring ideas to life.” 

Where does the funding come from to run the Velocity Innovation Challenge?

“Velocity is administered by the University through Velocity’s founding partner the University of Auckland Business School and we are very fortunate to have supportive partners such as UniServices, Momentum, NZ Growth Capital Partners and Hudson Gavin Martin, who help make this competition possible.” 

Can I enter?

“The Velocity Innovation Challenge is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as academic and professional staff at the University of Auckland. Please do enter!”

Who selects the winners?

“CIE has an amazing community of professional volunteers. Dozens come on board every year to mentor and judge entrants to our competitions. They have professional experience and knowledge to draw from which is invaluable for assessing entries. They also offer really constructive feedback to entrants which will help them so much in later advancing those ideas.”

What makes a good idea?

“Innovation is really the intersection of desirability, viability and feasibility. When judges are looking at entries they’re assessing novelty of course but they also want to see that there is demand and that it’s actually possible to bring the idea to life. The sweet spot for innovation is between those three forces.”

The Velocity Innovation Challenge is now open! Find out more and enter before 12 noon, Monday 16 May.