More than 100 teams from 65 universities and business schools around the world have registered for the G20 Global Business Challenge organised by Brisbane’s three leading universities.
Teams have until 25 July to submit their business plans and be in the running for the $US100,000 first prize.
The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University and the Queensland Government are hosting the competition, which is being run in conjunction with the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane in November and will be staged at QUT’s Gardens Point campus.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said applications to tackle the challenge, which tasks teams with developing innovative solutions to water scarcity, had been received from all corners of the globe.
“The volume of applications has exceeded expectations – teams from 30 countries have applied, including from non-G20 nations,” Professor Coaldrake said.
“This reflects the fact water scarcity is a worldwide challenge and, critically, that there is a global appetite to find practical solutions.”
UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj said the competition would focus the minds of some of the world’s brightest graduate students on innovations in water use and management.
“Finding sustainable ways to use and manage water is a pressing challenge for the world,” Professor Høj said.
“Water, and its increasing scarcity, has emerged as a key issue for governments, industries and communities globally.”
Cambridge University, London Business School, the University of Delhi, the University of Warsaw, Lund University, the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Boston, the University of California and the University of Washington are among the organisations that have entered the challenge.
Proposed business solutions would be “holistic” in nature and comprise a mix of new technologies and innovative business and financing models.
Global CEOs and financiers will sit on a panel for the final judging in November. Finalists will be announced on 15 August.
Griffith University Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Ian O'Connor said how water is managed, given competing demands from industry and agricultural enterprises, as well as environmental and management concerns, created a degree of complexity that had only recently been acknowledged.
“Traditional approaches to this complex problem – such as research-driven technology-push solutions within larger integrated systems – are too simplistic,” he said.
“Broader holistic and transformative paradigm shifts are required.
“The objective of the 2014 G20 GBC is to create opportunities for economic development activity in regional and remote communities through better management of increasingly scarce water resources.”
More information on the G20 Global Business Challenge, which will become an annual event in Brisbane, can be found at www.g20gbc.org
Contact: Fiona Cameron, UQ Communications, +61 7 3346 7086
