OneStart, the worlds largest life sciences and health care business plan accelerator program, is accepting applications through December 1, 2014 for its 2015 competition. Running both a European and American track, the American portion of the competition will be reward $150,000 to up-and-coming entrepreneurial ventures in the areas of -therapeutics, diagnostics, software, devices, research tools, and more- as detailed on the OneStart web site.
This year, the program has teamed up with the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable with one main goal in mind: attracting young entrepreneurs. For this reason, all participants in the competition must be 35 years or younger.
The winner of the Grand Prize will reap significant prizes and benefits to launch their venture. The prize includes not only the $150,000 in non-dilutive money, but also free lab space and follow-up mentoring.
According to the programs website, the judging panel of industry experts chooses the winner based on -the team that has the most potential to commercialize their idea and improve the lives of patients.-
Although the competition has only one Grand Prize winner for each track, the program also rewards over 70 teams with extensive mentoring and support.
Mentorship comes from top executives from many different venture capital firms and pharmaceutical companies. According to the website, the current mentors are drawn from GSK, SR One, J&J Innovation, Roche, McKinsey, Takeda Ventures, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MedCity, Silicon Valley Bank, and many more.
Following the end of the entry period on December 1st, thirty-five semi-finalists will be announced on December 19th; a two day bootcamp will be run in February and the finalists announced on April 13, 2015.
The application deadline for the first round of the competition is December 1st. To apply, visit http://www.onestart.co.
