🚀 go-pugleaf

This is to pass on an invitation Carnegie Mellon has received to participate in the third annual Merrill Lynch Innovation Grants Competition (http://www.ml.com/innovation/).  Please feel free to forward this message to those who may be interested.

Awards are given to PhD students who write the best descriptions of the potential commercial applications of their thesis work.  Top prize is $50,000 for the student; up to ten awards totalling $180,000 will be given. The schools (faculty advisors) of the winners get $5000.  This is prize money, not research support.

Merrill Lynch's purpose is to "create a greater appreciation of the quality of doctoral research worldwide."  They don't want well-developed business plans & spreadsheets, but want "crisp, accessible insights that demonstrate rigorous thinking" -- and they'd like to see entrants from fine arts, liberal arts and social sciences as well as science & engineering.

Judges include:

JOHN SEELY BROWN, PHD
Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation
JOHN DOERR
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
ESTHER DYSON
Chairman, EDventures Inc.
PETER GOLDMARK
Chairman & CEO, The International Herald Tribune
WILLIAM A. HASELTINE, PHD
Chairman & CEO, Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
EDWARD MCKINLEY
President, E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. International Ltd.
JOHN A. MCKINLEY, JR.
Chief Technology Officer, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
JOHN STOCKER, PHD
Principal, Foursight Associates Pty, Ltd.

Deadline is December 15, and any number of proposals may be submitted by any individual or university.

"The Merrill Lynch Forum will defer to the intellectual property rules and customs of the submitting university. The Forum does not own the ideas that are submitted; it merely recognizes and rewards them. Entrants and/or their universities retain all intellectual property rights, however all materials are submitted on a non-confidential basis."

The web site has a lot more information including short paragraphs about 1999 and 1998 winners.

Please let me know if you'd like any more information on this from me.   I have a few color paper brochures, but the web site is more comprehensive.

Thanks
Chris

M. Christina Gabriel, Sc. D.
Vice Provost for Corporate Partnerships and Technology Development
Carnegie Mellon University
Warner Hall 411
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890
412-268-6037
fax -2990
cgabriel@andrew.cmu.edu