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OCE Sponsors Contest For Entrepreneurial Researchers

Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Inc. is a proud sponsor of the Entrepreneurship 101 For Researchers: Up-Start Competition. The contest, run by the MaRS Discovery District, aims to support the development and growth of young companies spun-off from academic research.

On May 3, 2006, Mars will announce the winning team of researchers with the best business idea. The winning team will be presented with a $10,000 cheque courtesy of OCE Inc. The presentation will be made by Ilse Truernicht, CEO, Mars and Mark Romoff, President and CEO, Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc.

The contest is the culmination of MaRS's Entrepreneurship 101: Lectures for Researchers series. This non-credit course was designed for researchers in biological and physical sciences and engineering and explored a range of issues relating to starting and growing a technology-based business. For the course ending Upstart Competition, teams of students apply what they have learned from the course by presenting a 10-minute pitch for a business idea. The business ideas are drawn from the teams' own research expertise and, in many cases, represent the opportunities that drew the students to attend the course in the first place.

The six criteria to be used by an independent panel of judges to evaluate the pitches are:

• Have they clearly articulated the value proposition?
• Have they demonstrated competitive differentiation and intellectual capital?
• Have they demonstrated a business model that makes money?
• Have they demonstrated market awareness?
• How effective was the overall presentation?
• Would you invest?
• Judges for the event include Peter Suma, of GrowthWorks, and Victor Scutaru of the Business Development Bank of Canada.

In addition to receiving the award, the winning team will benefit from complementary legal advice from Heenan Blaikie LLP and Ogilvy Renault LLP on intellectual property issues.

The award presentation will take place starting 5:30 p.m. on May 3, 2006 at the Mars Centre, 101 College Street, Toronto.