Update: the venture submission deadline for the 2008-2009 competition has now passed. You are more than welcome to create new ventures, but please note that the submission form is no longer accessible.

The venture submission deadline for the Open Ventures Challenge is April 20th 11:59 AM. This deadline is fast approaching, and now is the time to enter your venture if you wish to be considered for the final phase. To enter your venture you just need to complete the submission form which can be found from your venture’s navigation bar.

We’ve provided some notes below to help you work through the form.

Basic Information

We need some contact details in order to keep you updated on your submission progress. You can also edit how your venture title will appear to the judges and in the community vote (see below).

The Venture Type

You need to let us know what kind of venture you are submitting.

• You may be proposing a new venture for CR-UK to start, run and manage. If so, then select “A new venture for CR-UK to run”
• You may be proposing a new venture that you and your team will run, and hope to share profit with, receive investment from, or in some other way work with CR-UK. If so, select “A new venture for this team to run in aid of CR-UK”
• You may have an existing business and want to work with CR-UK, for example, to reach new customers or have greater impact. If this is the case, select “An existing business wishing to partner with CR-UK”

The venture type will not affect the judging; there is no ‘best’ venture type. Knowing the venture types lets CR-UK more easily understand how they can work with the ventures.

The Venture Plan

Here is where you can upload the business plan for your venture. Your plan should be no longer than 2,000 words and should answer the following questions:

• Do you have an inspiring new venture?
• What is your business case?
• What is your business model?
• How feasible is your venture?
• Does your team have the capability to do it?

These and more questions are fleshed out in much more detail on the OVC Venture Selection Criteria.

If you like, you can also upload up to two appendices. However, your venture plan should be compelling by itself. The appendices will be given to the judges along with the venture plan, but do not rely on the judges looking at the appendices.

Please remember that the judges will be reading 20 or more venture plans. Writing clearly and structuring the plan with the selection criteria in mind will help them understand your business. If, like us, you find blank pages scary, here is a document which shows some headings you might use to get started.

The Community Vote

The Open Ventures community can vote to choose a venture which will be shortlisted alongside the ventures chosen by the CR-UK judges. For more information, please see The Community Choice Award.

The Last Bit

There are three last things that we ask you to do before we can accept your venture submission:

• You have to agree that the submission is the work of your venture team
• You have to agree to abide by the selection decision of Cancer Research UK
• You have to mark your venture as ready for submission

Please note that we will not pass on your entry to the judges unless you’ve checked and saved these boxes! You can do this anytime before the deadline.

If you have any questions or feedback, please do get in touch.