The Renewable Energy Technical Incubator (RETI)is launching a competition for KFUPM students as part of their Renewable Energy Program. This 50K challenge program aims to encourage university students to showcase their innovative ideas in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Industry 4.0 in Energy Systems. The program provides support for prototype development and testing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The strategic objective of the competition is to help KFUPM students commercialize their innovative ideas more effectively and expedite technology transfer to local and global markets in the renewable energy industry.

Phase-I, "Call for Ideas," will target students studying Engineering, Science, and Architecture who have innovative ideas and technologies and are interested in transforming their ideas into real products prototypes and business plans for commercialization in the fields of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and industry 4.0 in Energy Systems.

Phase-II will involve evaluating all entries received in Phase-I and shortlisting the 10 most promising ideas and projects by an expert panel. The shortlisted 10 ideas will receive funding of up to SAR 60,000 to develop a working prototype. In Phase-III, the 10 top ideas will be presented to the Competition Committee, and the best three winners will be awarded the first, second, and third-place prizes. The expert panel will be designed according to all the rules/requirements set out during Phase-I, while the Competition Committee will be designed according to the topics of the 10 shortlisted projects during Phase-II.

Phase-III: A total of SAR 50,000 +14,000 awarded prizes will be shared among the 10 participating teams. The first-place winner will receive SAR 25,000, the second-place SAR 15,000, and the third-place winner SAR 10,000. The fourth to tenth teams that participate will receive a cash incentive of SAR 2,000 each.

Rules and Requirements

Eligibility and Entry Requirements

• The contest is open to registered students from KFUPM only and not in their final year of study.
• Submissions are limited to one per person or team (a group) of a maximum of four persons.
• Teams may be multidisciplinary and formed from different departments.

Submission Deadline and Changes

• Entries may be submitted beginning January 11, 2024, and must be received latest by 4:00 PM February 04, 2024.
• The organizer reserves the exclusive right to change the contest dates due to any unforeseen reason or event beyond its control. However, under such circumstances, a notification with regard to any change of schedule or date will be duly announced in due course.
• The contest rules may change with prior notice at any time during the contest and participants will be duly notified of any such changes via the website or email.
• The organizer will not accept any liability for the consequences of any such changes.

Contest Terms and Conditions

• Participants may register for the contest by completing the online registration for available at the dedicated link:  (Click Here)
• Incomplete or incorrect registration forms (proposal) will not be accepted.
• Participants are required to compete under their legal name. The organizer reserves the right to take all necessary steps to verify their identity.
• Teams will not be considered final until the registration period is over. Members may be changed from teams while registration is ongoing (from January 11, 2024, to February 04, 2024). No changes to the submitted idea/project or to a team’s composition will be permitted once the registration period ends.
• By entering the Contest, participants agree, without exception, to abide by all of the contest’s rules, rules of ethical conduct, and all laws, regulations, and other rules apply.
• All entries must be the original work of participants as a single or group. Each participant or group must have only one idea in one track.
• The organizing committee reserves the right to admit any given idea different from the one selected at the time of online registration.
• Any source of funding used during the prototyping other than the one provided by KFUPM must be declared. 
• When submitting the business plan, you declare that all information it contains is accurate and complete and you are not violating any contract or third-party rights including any patent, copyright, trademark, confidential information, publicity, or privacy right. The organizing committee (or expert panel) through the Judging Panel reserves the right to disqualify any participant or group for any of such violations. The decision is in this case final.
• The organizer is not required to return submissions to participants following the contest’s conclusion.

Intellectual Properties

• If the participant feels that his/their idea is unique and contains patentable material, then a disclosure can be submitted to IP Office indicating his/their participation in this competition and informing the organizing committee.
• After reviewing the novelty and patentability of the disclosure, the Innovation Center could file a provisional application before the completion of the competition to save the rights of inventors and keep the opportunity to file a patent in all countries including Saudi Arabia. In this regard, the organizing committee of the competition in consultation with the participant can recommend important ideas/innovations to the IP Office.
• Regardless of filing a provisional application, the USPTO law gives only one year to file a patent after public disclosure (defense, publication … etc.) of its content. Hence, participants have to submit a disclosure to the Innovation Center not more than six months after the first public disclosure.

Project Requirements

• The duration of the project must not exceed nine months.
• All projects must meet the following criteria and technical requirements:
  • The projects must be written/displayed in English.
  • Multimedia presentations (video, slideshow, flash animation, 2D or 3D images, etc.),
  • shall not exceed 1 minute.
• File types accepted:
  • Video files (.avi, .mpeg)
  • Audio files (.wav, .mp3, etc.)
  • Image files (.png, .jpeg, .tif, etc.)
    

Evaluation Aspect

1. The originality of the idea
2. Clarity of objective
3. Impact on the energy sector
4. Implementation and prototyping
5. Applicability
6. Estimation of the budget

Submission of Applications

All undergraduate and graduate students (individually or in a team – i.e., a group of students) are invited to apply for the 50K Challenge Competition and submit their applications following the instructions given above.

Required Documents

The required documents are:

• The entry form
• The participants’ information form

Please use the following link to submit your application: (Click Here)

Contacts