The competition of Corporate and Business Relations was closed in June 2021.
Students of Bachelor, Master and Doctoral programmes could participate individually or in groups of two in the competition. 10 applicants won a grant of HUF 800,000 and a 2 month-long mentorship, which helped them realise their project ideas.
The primary aim of the Proof of Concept (PoC) programme was to provide professional and financial support for the university’s students to realise their ideas. During the first round of the competition, the students presented the description of their product or technology and their business model. The best applications were chosen by a professional jury consisting of the employees of Corvinus and external market experts. The members of the jury were the following: Dr. habil Éva Pintér, Associate Professor at the Institute of Information technology; Dr. Loretta Huszák, Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Development of Enterprises; Dr. Miklós Imre, Professor Emeritus of the University of Public Service; Gábor Ferenc Kiss, fellow at Corporate and Business Relations and Tamás Sebastian, a founder and CEO of RocketShepherd.com.
Besides receiving a grant, the winning applicants could participate in a 2 month-long mentorship programme. The aims of mentoring are talent management, counselling and the most optimal use of the grant. Tamás Stukovszky, leader of Corporate and Business Relations, explained that it did not matter if a talented student only had a great idea, a whole team, or their idea was already on the market, mentoring definitely advanced the participating students over the 2 months.
The closing of the Proof of Concept was an online event, which focused on the presentation of the applicants’ business plans and their development during the mentorship programme. Moreover, the PoC applicants could learn about the other students’ ideas, could hear the opinion and comments of the professional jury participating in the evaluation, and could learn from the comments and suggestions.
During the closing event, 3 special prizes from Corporate and Business Relations were awarded by the professional jury:
The Proof of Concept programme was supported by project no. 2019-1.2.1-EGYETEMIÖKO-2019-00022 won by the Corvinus University of Budapest within the framework of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office’s tender called University Innovation Ecosystem.