Life Sciences Business Plan Competition

Life Sciences Business Plan Competition

The Purdue Life Sciences Business Plan Competition aims to foster translational research and accelerate the commercialization of intellectual property in the life sciences arena. In doing so, the Competition exemplifies Purdue's spirit of Discovery-to-Delivery by generating entrepreneurship opportunities and driving economic development of life sciences research.

Commercially-viable business plan entries in the life sciences arena stemming from university-based research are invited to participate in the Competition. Participating teams must represent an actual life sciences company that is no more than three years old; recent start-up life sciences companies are of particular interest. Winning companies are required to provide documentation that the company has clear access to the intellectual property. This stipulation is a method to ensure that the competition makes awards to companies and not just to exciting ideas.

The Competition offers an impressive prize money and in-kind services package that teams will apply towards furthering and commercializing the respective research. Ample opportunities for networking among team members, judges, experts, and attendees will be provided during the competition, including an intimate feedback session between the finalist teams and judges.

Benefits

The finalists of the 2009 Life Science Business Plan Competition were asked to complete a brief exit survey to assess the contributions that participation in the competition made to the knowledge and skills of the company representatives.

Of the 13 company respondents (some companies had more than one respondent), 100% of the finalists agreed or strongly agreed with the following statements.

• Participation in the Life Sciences Competition increased my ability to write an effective executive summary for my company.
• Participation in the Life Sciences Competition increased my ability to prepare an effective business plan.
• Participation in the Life Sciences Competition increased my ability to make an effective presentation about my company.
• The Life Sciences Competition judges provided useful feedback for the future of my company.
• Participation in the Life Sciences Competition improved my skills to represent my company to potential funders.