The Hult Global Case Challenge has announced that two teams with students from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, as the only representatives from Swedish universities, has been accepted and will compete in the 3rd Annual Hult Global Case Challenge (Hult GCC) – an initiative that brings together top students from all over the globe to generate solutions to the world's most pressing social challenges.

Each team selected was chosen from more than 4,000 applications received. Most colleges and universities had multiple team applicants with one or two teams from each school being chosen. The 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge will focus on breaking the cycle of global poverty through developing sustainable solutions that will provide affordable housing, affordable energy, and affordable education to the bottom of the pyramid. USD 1 million in seed capital is made available annually to provide funding to pilot the very best ideas.

"This is a great example of how students from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship demonstrate their capabilities within social entrepreneurship towards an international arena," said Mats Lundqvist, Programme Director and co-founder of Chalmers School Entrepreneurship.

The following Chalmers students make up the winning teams. Sofia Reibring, Totte Münster Falck, Philip Axelsson, Torbjörn Svensson, Christopher Carlander, and Erik Vikström; John Wade, Elma Delic, Anita Schjøll Brede, Johan Wigelius and Dzana Damjanovic. 

"The Hult Global Case Challenge is thrilled that students from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship has joined the initiative," said Stephen Hodges, President of the Hult International Business School. "This year's competition has tripled in size, bringing together some of the most talented students to help solve world poverty which can benefit billions of people."

The Hult GCC regional competitions will take place on February 24-25, 2012 on Hult International Business School's five campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. The students from Chalmers will compete in London.

All regional winners will be flown to New York City for the final competition, which will be held on April 26, 2012, concluding with an award ceremony at one of New York City's most prestigious landmarks, the New York Public Library. Every finalist will receive the opportunity to meet and have photos taken with President Bill Clinton, who will serve as the keynote speaker and present the winning team with the award.

The Hult GCC is the world's largest and most internationally acclaimed case competition featuring thousands of students competing from over 100 countries. USD 1 million in seed capital is made available annually to provide funding to pilot the very best ideas. Hult GCC's mission is to develop innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing social challenges and encourage breakthrough ideas from college and university students around the world.

In today's local newspaper, three of our researcher debate about entrepreneurial learning. Read the debate article at gp.se (in Swedish).

During the autumn, the innovation projects of 2012 have raised more than 1 MSEK in soft money from Innovationsbron, Innovationskontoret Väst, Vinnova and Almi. This will give the teams great advantages towards their goal of incorporation and a good start of 2012.

The projets are run by students from the technology and bioscience tracks of Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, in close cooperation with the business coaches at Encubator AB. 

If you want to read more about the projects and the exiting ideas they are developing, you should visit this encubator page.  

During Thursday and Friday last week, our second year students presented their business plans in front of a full house and a panel of experts. As usual, one project each day was named the winner of best business plan and presentation, this year the awards went to Green Alba and Gorel.

When the students return in January, they will continue their work to further develop their business plans. In May 2012 they will present the improved business plan for an even tougher panel during Business Review 2.

This year 329 businesses ideas competed and yesterday night the jury appointed the 10 best ones during a crowded ceremony at Lindholmen Conference Center. We are proud to note that no less the 3 of the 10 winners are projects from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship where our second year students run the projects in cooperation with our incubation partner Encubator AB.

The winners are:

• Daniel Albinsson and Philip Axelsson with the project Panelito. 
• Totte Münster Falck, Eric Göransson and Elisabet Håkansson with the project Edvirt.
• Christopher Carlander and Erik Vikström with the project Flocazur.

Claes Lindahl, (Graduate´10) with his project Intellego Technologies was also among the winners.

See all the winners and read more about the competition here (in Swedish).