Welcome to the CleanTech Challenge
What?
The CleanTech Challenge is a free global business plan competition for ideas related to clean and durable technologies (CleanTech).
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.
When?
The CleanTech Challenge kicks off on November 6th and concludes in London in April 2019.
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
Deadline: November 6, 8 p.m.
PROFESSIONAL COACHING
get personal and professional help 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 your technology
REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY AT THE LONDON FINALS
during a two-day CleanTech Challenge Bootcamp the overall winning team will be chosen and will be rewarded with a £10.000 prize
Timeline of Events
Check again soon for an updated schedule!
02/10: Info-event AFC/AFD/AFT
Do you want to join the competition? Are you not sure yet? We will be present at the info-event of AFCDT to answer all your questions! Come and take a look to get a better idea of this amazing experience.
19h00 – Pieter De Somer Aula, Leuven (Charles Deberiotstraat 24, 3000 Leuven)
25/10 : LCIE event
LCIE supports students, professors and others with an entrepreneurial spirit. CleanTech Challenge will be represented at this event, as it is a challenge where the focus lies on the entrepreneurial mindset.
19u45 – Promotiezaal Universiteitshal, Naamsestraat 22, 3000 Leuven
06/11: 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)
20/11 : Workshop "How to start a project"
How to create the right business plan for the project?
The teams prepare a business plan before coming to the workshop. This way they get relevant feedback on their work.
TBA: Feedback Session & Networking
What kind of project do they want to elaborate? Is it realistic?
The teams work out a technical plan for their project. Ranging from how the innovation will work to what materials they will use to build it.
TBA: Workshop Pitch Strategies
How to promote the project to the world? How to convince the jury that the project is the best?
TBA: Workshop Financial Plan
How to finance the project?
Get insights in how to manage budgets, where to get financial support, how to make the project profitable,…
March 2019: Belgian Finals
During the finals all teams compete against each other. The teams get a chance to pitch their project to a jury. The best and most realistic project will be rewarded and will represent our country in the London finals.
April 2019: Global Finals
The London Business School and University College London welcome the best teams from all over the world. During a 2-day CleanTech Challenge Bootcamp the overall winning team will be chosen and will be rewarded with a £10.000 prize.
Our team
This year the CleanTech challenge 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 promote technological entrepreneurship among students.
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!
Jens Cloots
AFT Cleantech Manager
Dries Wijckmans
AFD CleanTech Coördinator
EDITION 2015
CleanTech Challenge Belgium 2015’s winner was Demetex from Louvain-la-neuve. They represented Belgium in the global finals in London and went home with the main prize: a 10000£ check.
Demetex’s idea is to offer to farmers fertilization maps allowing them to know the optimal quantity of nitrogen to use given the position in the field. With the use of drones, we can collect pictures of the fields and then treat them to offer a diagnostic to farmers. Thanks to the diagnostic maps, the farmers make economies and reduce their impact on the environment.
The Cleantech Challenge has been a great opportunity for us. It allowed us to gain visibility for our projet and to broaden our network. The workshops were really interesting. We had the chance to have great mentors coming from the cleantech sector. The Belgian CleanTech team has been very supportive during the contest in London. They organised everything so that we could concentrate on our work.
Partners
Would you like your company here? Drop us a line below!
