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Entry requirements
The bluebox Ideas Competition is open to individual or group applicants from within QUT.
All QUT employees (including researchers) and students are eligible to enter. Visiting scholars or researchers are not eligible.
Innovations, ideas and research at any stage of development may be submitted for selection.
Entrants may make multiple applications, provided each application relates to a separate idea.
Entrants must confirm that the content of their entry (e.g. their idea, concept, theory, invention, innovation, product, service or early-stage research) is not owned, assigned or licensed (either through agreement or through funding) to any party, other than QUT or QUT students. Entries that contain intellectual property owned by, assigned or licensed to an external party other than QUT are not eligible to enter.
Intellectual property outcomes
bluebox is under no obligation to undertake any action regarding the content of any application submitted to the bluebox Ideas Competition, including winning entries, but may do so at its own discretion.
Where significant commercial outcomes may result , bluebox may provide advice and support with respect to confidentiality and intellectual property protection.
bluebox may also:
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Measure the prospective market for entries;
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Assess the intellectual property protection potential of entries;
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Consider a strategy to protect the intellectual property based on the market potential (if appropriate);
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Assist with packaging the project to enhance further investment, should this goal be considered commercially viable; and
- Support fundraising to advance the research outcome.
Prize pool
A maximum prize pool of $25,000 will be awarded.
Cash prizes of $10,000 (for first place) and $7,500 (for two runners up) are available.
Cash prizes will be awarded by transfer of funds to the QUT surplus account of the researcher or research group. If the winning entrant does not have a QUT surplus account, bluebox will discuss other transfer methods with recipient. The choice of funds transfer method is at bluebox’s discretion.
Prizes will also be awarded to the best idea from each Faculty (up to a total value of $100 for each prize). Winners of the “Best idea” prizes will be chosen from all entries received at Stage 1 of the competition, including finalists selected to progress to Stage 2.
In addition, the highest-placed student teams will be encouraged to apply for The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge on behalf of the university. For more information regarding The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge, please visit http://www.johnheinechallenge.org/
Judging process
Stage 1 applications open at 8am, Monday 23rd June, 2008 and close at 5pm, Thursday 31st July, 2008. Entries will be accepted via email, post, fax or in person, between these dates.
Applications received at Stage 1 of the competition will be judged by a panel of experts, based on their individuality and commercial merit. A small number of finalists will be selected by the judging panel to progress to Stage 2.
Finalists will complete a series of one-hour mentoring sessions with a business mentor, held over a six-week period, to develop their ideas to pitch stage. Finalists will then present a ten-minute pitch at the finalists’ event held at 1pm, Thursday, 18th September. The judging panel will assess each pitch against clearly established criteria, and winners will be announced at the conclusion of event.
Comprehensive research will be conducted to ensure that finalists' entries have not already been discovered or developed.
The decision of the judging panel is final, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the decision.
