The OVC is an experiment. It’s a very real experiment that will hopefully have amazing outcomes – but an experiment nonetheless. The OVC’s full name is ‘The Open Ventures Challenge in aid of Cancer Research UK’. But what does that mean? That is what we are here to discover.

How did it happen?

It was first created when two people had a conversation which began with the usual question of “what do you do?”, and continued with “How can I help?”  By starting there and then moving on to what mo.jo was trying to do as a company and what the Cancer Research UK Radical Innovation team was created to do, the idea of the OVC was created.

The idea was that people should be given a way that they can use their ideas, knowledge and energy to make a difference to beating cancer – a bigger difference than their wallets could make.

Cancer Research UK’s vision statement is “Together we will beat cancer” and mo.jo’s vision is to “enable anyone to create new ventures to change the world”. It seemed a great match. But as all new ventures go, it was just the beginning: we had the idea and the beginnings of a plan but we needed more support to make it a reality. Luckily we met NESTA.

With NESTA’s help and support we have been able to turn the idea of the OVC into a reality.

So what is it?

The challenge in the Open Ventures Challenge is to everyone in the world and is to “create three new ventures with the potential to generate £10m to help beat cancer”.

Like all great goals, it is a little bit scary. Many have asked how we are going to do that. The honest answer is that we don’t know – but we’re hoping you can help us find out.

The Open Ventures Challenge is a search for ideas that can make a real difference to the future of Cancer Research UK and the people who can turn those ideas into reality. We think that you can be one of those people.

If you haven’t signed up already you can do so here, or if you are you can check out the latest activity.