Have an idea to transform education?

October 24, 2011 - The 2012 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition is open for business. 

The world’s only business plan competition devoted solely to education is now accepting submissions. The competition awards five prizes, totaling $90,000, in a number of categories. 

Launched in 2009, the competition was founded to fill a striking need in the education world. While recent decades have seen the growth of entrepreneurial start-ups seeded from numerous research universities, those efforts have focused largely on biotech, software, engineering, and medicine.

But entrepreneurship holds great promise in the field of education as well. To address this issue, the Milken Family Foundation and Penn GSE have come together to create the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition. 

Executive summaries are due by December 12, 2011, with semi-finalists to be announced on February 3, 2012. Full business plans are due in March, with finalists announced in early May. The live competition will be held in Philadelphia on June 19, 2012. 

Prizes are The Milken Family Foundation Prize for best overall plans, first place, ($25,000; second-place, $15,000); the Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources ($25,000); the American Public University System Prize for online/distance learning within higher education ($25,000); and the Non-Traditional Learner Prize for 

For details and application forms, go to http://nestcentral.org/.

Contact: Kat Stein, Exec. Director of Communications / katstein@gse.upenn.edu / (215) 898-9642