DURHAM, N.H. – Registration is now open for the 2016 New Hampshire Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC). Launched in 2011, the event has now become a signature annual event of the University of New Hampshire. Each year the competition has showcased the idealism and ingenuity of students and entrepreneurs across New Hampshire, engaging over 150 contestants, representing over 70 teams, with ideas spanning an extremely wide range of issue areas from poverty to climate change.

There are two tracks – one for community members (New Hampshire residents and any UNH alumni) and another for students in any college or university in the state. Submissions can be by individuals or teams. Full details on registration, deadlines and eligibility. The deadline to register and file an “intent to compete” is 5 p.m. ET, Friday Oct. 7, 2016. Submissions are due Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, by 5 p.m. ET. The preliminary round will be judged online by a panel of distinguished social venture leaders, funders and other experts. Eight teams in each track will be selected to advance to the final round, which will take place Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Durham.

The SVIC is focused on inspiring, encouraging and supporting a generation of social entrepreneurs who do not just discuss local and global challenges, but take real, concrete steps toward solving them. The SVIC asks contestants to design innovative, sustainable, business-orientated solutions in response to some of society’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Designed to be an “innovation accelerator,” the SVIC is an idea competition where big ideas are rewarded. No detailed plans required, but rather proposals in the form of a three-minute video and two-page paper. Entries can be for a new (pre-launch stage) initiative, an existing social venture in the formative stages of development (i.e. less than one year old), or a major new social entrepreneurial initiative for an established venture.

Cash prizes for the community track are: first prize, $10,000; second, $5,000; third, $2,500. PixelMEDIA, a leading web design & development, ecommerce strategy, and application design firm, will provide 100 hours of pro bono consulting to the first place winner of the community track.

A new package of additional in-kind prizes worth approximately $7,000 are also available for the first time in 2016 to each of the three winners of the community track. This package includes $4,500 of start-up services (business services, IP counseling and a trademark registration) from leading New England law firm, Pierce Atwood; 12 months of flex membership for use of a co-working space in one of many locations in New Hampshire provided by AlphaLoft, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the development of early-stage businesses in New Hampshire; a one-year subscription to the New Hampshire Business Review, and a partner level annual membership to New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility.

Cash prizes for the student track are: first prize, $5,000; second, $3,000; third, $2,000.

Awards for the winners are made possible by the generous support of lead sponsors Kennebunk Savings Bank, Pierce Atwood, PixelMEDIA and Timberland, as well as The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (whose support funds, in part, the community track,) AlphaLoft, CCA Global, the New Hampshire Business Review and New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility.The SVIC is organized by the Center for Social Innovation & Enterprise, and is also co-hosted by UNH’s Sustainability Institute, NH EPSCoR, Net Impact UNH, and UNHInnovation.

The Center for Social Innovation & Enterprise is a joint venture at UNH between the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and the Carsey School of Public Policy with the mission to support UNH’s innovative pedagogy, applied research, and meaningful engagement in social innovation, to contribute uniquely to the growing field of social innovation by working at the nexus of individual entrepreneurs and business models (traditionally the domain of business schools) with public policy and systemic change (traditionally the domain of policy schools), and inspire and equip UNH students from all colleges to be ‘changemakers’ through interdisciplinary, applied, hands-on career-relevant learning experiences at the intersection of business, policy, and social change.