The Rice Business Plan Competition gives collegiate entrepreneurs real-world experience to pitch their startups, enhance their business strategy and learn what it takes to launch a successful company. 2025 marks our 25th year of the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC). To celebrate this milestone, we are proud to announce that Rice Business is our presenting sponsor. Rice Business, in its 50th year, is the home to the No. 1 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program and shares our mission to empower the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. Hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the RBPC has grown to become the world’s largest and richest student start-up competition, with 42 teams competing for more than $1 million in cash, investments and prizes.

Be part of the Energy Tech 2025 Conference at the SPARK VIRGINIA Pitch Competition, where Virginia’s most innovative minds in utility, energy, and climate technology compete for $10,000 in prizes ($7,500 grand prize winner; $2,500 runner up)! Taking place on March 6, 2025, at the Science Museum of Virginia during Energy Tech 2025 in Richmond, this exciting event will showcase groundbreaking technologies poised to transform Virginia’s energy economy. Eight startups will pitch their cutting-edge solutions to a panel of Virginia’s top investors, utility executives, and energy leaders. With only five minutes to present and five minutes for Q&A, these entrepreneurs will compete for funding, recognition, and the opportunity to accelerate their journey to commercialization.

Following a successful Round 1 and Round 2 of this prize series, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity is excited to announce the $2.5 million Digitizing Utilities Prize Round 3: Resilient Grid Innovation. Round 3 of this competition aims to incentivize technology development partnerships with interdisciplinary teams of utility and energy sector partners with software developers and data experts to facilitate the transformation of digital systems, data analytics, and grid resource integration for the electric sector.

Through the three phases of the prize, teams have the chance to win part of the $8.42 million prize pool to fund their ongoing activities that address local challenges in clean energy, energy efficiency, manufacturing, materials, and transportation. Successful competitors will demonstrate a strong track record of building trust and strengthening relationships and partnerships within their communities. The Community Energy Innovation Prize is made up of three tracks, each with distinct focus areas, over three phases:

• Clean Energy Ecosystem Track.
• Manufacturing Ecosystem Track.
• Vehicles Ecosystem Track.

The Rice Alliance, the Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI) and TEX-E are partnering for the annual Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek, set to take place in the Innovation Agora in the George R. Brown Convention Center on March 12, 2025 with a special Pitch Preview event (free to attend) on March 11 at the Ion Houston. The Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition features pitches from more than 40 energy ventures driving efficiency and advancements toward the energy transition. The fast-paced competition is designed to connect energy startups with venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, industry leaders, academics, and service providers.

Launch your electrifying journey into the future of innovation! Join the world’s largest multi-sector commercialization program for emerging deep technologies. Pitch your groundbreaking innovations and connect with top-tier corporate, investment, military and federal leaders for partnering, licensing and investment opportunities. Whether you’re a startup, university TTO, federal lab, or federal awardee, seize the moment. Submit your commercially viable innovation now and connect with the largest gathering of tech-scouts and funding offices worldwide.

The Fourth Revolution Awards celebrates regional manufacturing for its leadership and innovation as the industry stands on the brink of a new technological revolution.
Winners Receive: Two 3-month shared workspace memberships to mHUB; Visibility across mHUB’s network of more than 50,000 manufacturing and innovation stakeholders; Opportunities to connect with local industry leaders; Bespoke marketing promotional video.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Clean Energy Education Prize Round 2 Inspire Track aims to advance clean energy programming opportunities for younger students and clean energy connections for historically Black Colleges and Universities. The goal is to inspire HBCU-hosted summer or academic break educational programs that engage K–12 and community college students in clean energy topics. The Inspire Track supports the development or expansion of HBCU-hosted clean energy summer or academic break programs for K-12 and community college students. These programs will help explain basic concepts of clean energy technologies and illuminate possible clean energy educational and career pathways for students.

The 2025 competition offers $75,000 to $150,000 in prize awards during two stages to organizations to accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation ecosystems. Stage One offers $75,000 in cash prizes to organizations that identify challenges within their innovation ecosystems and propose unique solutions. The SBA encourages submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Applicants are asked to align their application with one of the following GAFC Theme Areas: Lab-to-Market and Capital Formation.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for a total of $5,000,000 from Fiscal Years (FY) 2022, 2023, and 2024 in Public Transportation Innovation Program (49 U.S.C. § 5312) funds for a competitive cooperative agreement to develop and manage a new FTA Technology Transfer (T2) Program.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the $500 million Renew America’s Schools Program to promote the implementation of energy improvements at K-12 public schools across the country. This is a first-of-its-kind investment made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The program supports the implementation of infrastructure improvements in schools, with a focus on local educational agencies (LEAs) that qualify as rural and/or high poverty.

The 2025 Renew America’s Schools Prize consists of three phases. During Phase 1, competitors will build teams and curate lists of at least 10 schools and school facilities that demonstrate compelling need and eligibility for investment. Up to 14 Phase 1 Winners will earn a cash prize of $300,000 for successfully building teams and submitting compelling applications identifying need. DOE will down select to identify winners who may move on to Phases 2 and 3, wherein they will enter and execute Cooperative Agreements with DOE.

Applications for the 2025 IdeaFunding pitch competition are now live. Entrepreneurs will need to submit applications before January 15, 2025. IdeaFunding is Southern Arizona’s largest and longest entrepreneurial conference and pitch competition, where this year over $50,000 in prizes will be awarded to Arizona-based companies on March 27, 2025, as part of the 2025 TENWEST Festival. IdeaFunding is co-led by Startup Tucson and the University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) and presented by the Arizona Commerce Authority. This year’s pitch competition will support startups with a wide variety of available prizes valued from $1,000 to $25,000 which include a mix of cash and services. Main-stage first and second-place prize winners will receive a sponsored year in the UACI incubator program, a prize valued at $10,000. There will also be four vertical stages, each awarding prizes, along with specialty prizes like the Adelante Arizona prize for diverse founders sponsored by Community Investment Corporation.