Friday, October 4th, 2013...2:22 pm

2014 Agricultural Innovation Prize: Call For Applications

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The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are excited to launch the 2014 Agricultural Innovation Prize. The competition is open to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students across all academic disciplines and runs through spring 2014, when teams will compete for the chance to win $215,000 in prize money, with a grand prize of $100,000; making this the largest agriculture-focused student competition in the world.

The contest encourages student teams to develop innovative plans to address social and agricultural challenges within food systems, improving the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s population. The contest will narrow down all of the entries to the top 25 teams who will be invited to the final round, taking place in Madison, WI at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

The Agricultural Innovation Prize was developed to boost the agricultural innovation ecosystem. It strives to connect various sectors and disciplines in an effort to better address the challenges of the 21st  century. These challenges include bringing our food, climate and social systems within a safe operating space. It hopes to identify ways to achieve food security while keeping us within sound environmental boundaries.  The Ag Prize seeks students who are interested in transforming global food systems into one that facilitates sufficiency and resilience. This transformation will occur with the increased awareness and attention of the next generation of leaders, unbridled by any number of constraints. Local and global food systems directly and indirectly interact with numerous parts of our globalized world. We intend to draw diverse student teams from a very wide range of disciplines and backgrounds to compete in the Ag Prize.

Initial submission deadline is February 28th, 2014. Teams are notified if they’ve moved on to the top 25 by March 14th, 2014. Mentors are assigned and will assist teams from March 14th until the final round of competition, updated materials for each of the top 25 teams are submitted by April 18th, 2014. The final round of competition is hosted on April 25th (top 5) and 26th (grand prize winner) of 2014 in Madison, WI. For more details, click here.



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