CleanTech Challenge Belgium

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Welcome to the CleanTech Challenge

What?

The CleanTech Challenge is a free global business plan competition for ideas related to clean and durable technologies. We seek ideas that have the potential to make a significant environmental impact to promote sustainable ventures.

For Who?

Students from all universities and colleges in Belgium can apply. This includes Bachelors, Masters and PhDs, local and international students.

Where?

The Belgian competition is hosted in Leuven by AFT and AFD. The winner gets the opportunity to go to the international final in London hosted by London Business School and University College London.

Tell me more!

The CleanTech Challenge is a cleantech business plan competition organised by London Business School and University College London to help students develop their cleantech ideas into credible businesses. The competition promotes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together technical and business students to develop their ideas with the help of industry expert mentors.

The Belgian competition, organised by Academics For Development Leuven and Academics For Technology, will determine who will be sent to the finals in London, and there they will compete for the £10.000 prize to fund their start-up.

SIGN UP

Form a team (3-5 pers.) or join alone, and participate in the Belgian competition

PROFESSIONAL COACHING

With the help of multiple workshops and professional guidance, you’ll get to turn your idea into a start-up

WIN THE BELGIAN FINALS

Compete against the other teams in the Belgian finals and impress the jury with pitch and sustainable startup

GO TO LONDON

During a two-day CleanTech Challenge Bootcamp the overall winning team will be chosen and will be rewarded with a £10.000 prize

Timeline CTC 2019-2020

Keep an eye out on our socials and website for further updates!

1st semester

Tue 05 Nov - Kick-off Event

Want to hear how last year’s participants experienced the CleanTech Challenge? Haven’t found a team yet? Want to meet the other teams? Need some ideas for your project? Meet us on the kick-off event!

19h30 – Radiohuis (Boekhandelstraat 2, 3000 Leuven)

Wed 13 Nov - Workshop Crossbridge: “Discover yourself & build your brand”

Come with us on a journey to discover your true self and the world around you! After all, before you can find the job of your dreams, you first need to know what those dreams are. We will introduce you to our online orientation platform, myShortlist, that will help you find out about your strengths and interests, career drivers and ideal working environment.

Furthermore, we’ll focus on how to create and deliver a strong elevator pitch, which will improve your chances of success during your job hunt.

Tue 19 Nov - Workshop: “Brainstorming & ideation”

To make sure every team has a well defined Cleantech startup idea, the teams get the opportunity to brainstorm together. Aquafin will help the participants with some professional guidance!

Wed 27 Nov - Workshop Vlerick Business School: “Business Planning”

Vlerick will learn us about all the do’s and dont’s when developing your business plan, the different stages of a startup and the essence of entrepreneurship. The workshop will be held at Vlerick’s campus in Leuven!

Vlerick Business School is the 2nd highest ranked Business School in the Benelux and the 22nd in Europe.

Wed 11 dec - Feedback Session 1st semester

What kind of project do they want to elaborate? Is it realistic?

The objective is to give a short first pitch of the idea in front of a jury to adress the technical feasibility and improve based on their feedback. This will be the first test of your business idea.

2nd semester

Tue 11 Feb - Workshop Start it @ KBC: "Financial Planning"

How to finance the project?

Start it @ KBC will tell us something more about the different investment sources and how to use them to make a comprehensive financial plan with the help of their template. They will also elaborate on their accelerator program with the help of a startup testimonial. This workshop will be held at thier offices in Leuven.

Wed 19 Feb- Workshop McKinsey & Company: "Pitching Strategies"

How to promote your project to the world? How to convince the jury that your idea is the best? McKinsey & Company will teach us more about some key pitching strategies to present with impact and tips to convince the jury of your startup idea! The workshop will be held at the offices of McKinsey & Company in Brussels.

Tue 3 Mar - Feedback Session 2nd semester

Last chance for the participants to pitch their idea to our partners and get feedback on their business and financial plan.

Wed 11 Mar - Belgian Finals "The Road to London"

During the finals all teams compete against each other. The teams get a chance to pitch their project to our Dragon’s Den jury. The most promising startup will be rewarded the golden ticket to London. Take a look at our socials for more information!

Wednesday 11 March @ Groep T (Leuven)

23-24 Apr - Global Finals @ London

The London Business School and University College London welcome the best teams from all over the world. During a 2-day Bootcamp, the overall winning team will be chosen and will be rewarded with a £10.000 prize as an initial investment in the startup.

Aftermovie CleanTech Challenge 2019-2020

For the aftermovie of the Belgian CTC final 19-20 and some testimonials from previous winners, go to Previous Editions!

Our team

The CleanTech challenge Belgium is organized by AFT Leuven and AFD Leuven.

The goal of AFD, or Academics For Development, is to offer students the possibility to have a social impact in a durable and meaningful way, by offering them the opportunity to contribute to real life issues in developing and developed countries.

The mission of AFT, short for Academics For Technology, is to to get students excited about technology and entrepreneurship. As the future will be all about innovation, our goal is to prepare the entrepreneurs of tomorrow through our workshops, events and international trips!

Together we can offer students a unique combination of entrepreneurship, technology, durability and social impact. Therefore we form the perfect team to organise the Belgian rounds of this global business plan competition about clean technology!