We’re the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA); we fund emerging student entrepreneurs and faculty and provide workshops, investments and other resources to help students advance their ventures. More than 40 technology companies have emerged from teams we’ve funded, and many more start-ups and ventures have benefited from our training and advice.

Opportunities with the NCIIA:

E-Team grants:
• We award up to $15,000 to more than 20 E-Teams each year, to move student-driven technologies from idea to market.
• Read more about one of our successful grantees, Ecovative Design.
• The deadline for the next E-Team grants round is May 8, 2009.
• Read our guidelines and apply.

Invention to Venture workshops
• Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
• I2V is one-day workshop on the basics of technology entrepreneurship, with presentations by successful entrepreneurs in your area.
• Fast-paced and fun

Advanced I2V workshops
• If you’re serious about moving your venture forward, AI2V is for you.
• You’ll spend four intense days receiving instruction, doing exercises, practicing pitching and interacting with qualified coaches to develop and articulate a strategic plan for your venture.
• Check the schedule for dates of workshops.

We’re always happy to talk about these opportunities. Call us at 413-587-2172, or send a note to info@nciia.org.

To browse other Ashoka GenV partners, check out our interactive map of the Invention Sector.

Young Inventors International

1) How do you support young inventors?

We offer online webinars about topics such as patenting, raising money for innovations, commercialization, and building teams.  The webinars are streamed online and broadcast into classrooms and student clubs across North America.  We have held four international conferences, most recently at MIT (hosted by the MIT Public Service Center), which are highly interactive and focus on bringing together student entrepreneurs and student social entrepreneurs.  Our BrainBuzzes feature social venture technologies and are networking events that meaningfully connect participants.

2) How does a young person participate in your programs?

Young innovators can register for free to receive our newsletter with advice and resources, access to our LinkedIn community, opportunities to showcase their innovation, and online discussion boards.  Students can also purchase live and archived webinars,  a copy of the YII ebook (YII’s Practical Start-up Guide: All you need to know to get your venture off the ground).  Lastly, universities, colleges, and non-profit organizations can become Institutional Affiliates and receive complimentary Premium subscriptions for all students/members, as well as permission to stream YII webinars for classes and meetings.

3) What makes your organization unique?

The organization is unique in its interactive approach to teaching university and college students about innovation and entrepreneurship.  We develop our in-person programs around a mandate of experiential learning, which focuses on creating experiences that teach meaningful skills and foster lasting relationships among students, seasoned entrepreneurs, and subject experts.  Commercializing an invention or starting a venture teaches students many things that they will be able to use throughout their professional careers, regardless of whether or not their first venture succeeds.

Link: Website

How do you support young inventors?

We at the Egyptian Society for Engineering Innovations support young inventors through a variety of ways including; training, funding, and marketing support for their products. Some of the products that the society has supported include a photovoltaic lighting system, garbage sorting line, and a solar water heater.

How does a young person participate in your program(s)?

The Egyptian Society for Engineering Innovations provides information and support for young innovators. We also have periodic announcements for young inventors to present their ideas, the best receiving prizes. In addition, inventors applying for patents with the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research are directed to us for assistance in organizing and preparing their applications.

What makes your organization unique?

Our society is unique in that we offer technical, financial and moral support to young inventors, at times providing support to those turned down by other organizations. Apart from encouraging the development of NEW IDEAS and INNOVATIONS among students and others we link young innovators to other organizations, such as Ashoka’s Youth Venture.

We recognize the inventor as an agent of development, and encourage his professionalization. We seek to create a new paradigm through which poor people no longer rely on foreign solutions to their problems, but instead generate their own development through technological solutions that are appropriate, needs-based, and that nurture creative talent.

1) How do you support young inventors?

We carry out workshops as well as science and inventions activities in schools to foster the interest of children and youth in this issues, and to stimulate their creativity. We work with all of the youth, not only with those that are inventors, but when we identify talented young inventors we provide them with information and training about the inventive process.

2) How does a young person participate in your programs?

Our strategy is to reach young people through schools. We take advantage of schools space and time because we want to incorporate our approach in the Curricula. Another way young people can take part is by registering in our website, this way they can have access to the following benefits:

• Manuals to build educational inventions (teaching and learning materials)
• Online training about patents and intellectual property
• Training on how to develop good quality prototypes
• Operational Plan for inventors

3) What makes your organization unique?

We could say that our organization is innovative (although I don´t know if “unique”) because we work on the field of inventions with a simultaneous double focus: social and commercial. Social (beneficiaries = the community), because we believe that inventive capacity is a competitive advantage for a nation. However, poor countries do not take advantage of it and loads of talent it lost for lack of support; and commercial (beneficiaries = inventors), because we consider fundamental to learn to generate profits from inventions. We promote the inventor as a development agent, but we also promote his/her economic well being and professionalization.

Link: Inventar Website

This map shows our invention ventures and partners around the world. Click on the map and drag left or right to see different regions. Click on each pin to find out more about each venture and partner.

If you would like to be added to this map, leave a comment below with URL and description of your organization. Thank you.

Its mission is to identify and incubate grassroots technological innovations developed by innovators that can have a significant impact on rural lives and enable these innovations to reach rural markets. RIN identifies these innovations and helps to develop and market the innovations that have commercial potential. 

How do you support young inventors?

We at Rural Innovations Network realize that the young generation of students are our future innovators and entreprenuers and hence it is nessessary that we sow the seed now to see then succeed in the future in this field. They should be given exposure to this sector in thier early days so that they have the option of making a differnce to the most deserving as early as possible.

With various programmes such as the My Idea Programmes, Student Project Funding Scheme  and partnering with National Level Business Plan Competitions we ensure a steady inflow of young innovators into our system and this ensures that the innovation ecosystem is ever growing.

How does a young person participate in your program(s)?

A young innovator who is committed to follow his dream of making a difference in rural areas with technology based products can get involved as early as in the Pre-Incubation Programme (PIP). This programme at RIN helps the innovator to understand the nuances of taking his/her product from the idea to the market stage.  The PIP allows him/her to question experts in various fields to make him better equipped to become an entrepreneur.

What makes your organization unique?

Rural Innovations Network IS unique. The uniqueness is clear in its mission statement of “Enabling innovations to reach the rural markets and impact the rural poor”.

With programmes such as Pre-Incubation Programme (PIP), Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Programme(L-RAMP), Samruddhi (last mile outlets), Knowledge Management (KM), User center Innovative Design (UCID), Talent Development Programme (TDP) and InnoCentive we bring together designers, fabricators, patent attorneys, market researchers, lab testing agencies, subject matter experts,mentors,  social entrepreneurs, government and investors for the innovator to make his ideas into reality.

For further information on various opportunities at RIN, please visit our website (www.rinovations.org).

Want to know how to do or make something?  Look it up on Instructables first.  Chances are someone has written up step-by-step instructions.

For example, you can build your own wind turbine, create your own ice-skating rink, assemble a wheelchair for your Dachschund.

We encourage all our Invent Your World entrants to create an “instructable” on Instructables.com

Link: www.instructables.com

Link: www.africagadget.com

InvenTeams composed of high school students, teachers and mentors are asked to collaboratively identify a problem that they want to solve, research the problem, and then develop a prototype invention as an in-class or extracurricular project. Grants of up to $10,000 support each team’s efforts.

InvenTeams was launched in 2002 as a pilot program that awarded grants to three New England high school teams for the 2002-03 academic year. The initiative has expanded each year since its inception, and in the fall of 2007 it awarded 16 InvenTeams grants.

InvenTeams Mission

• EXCITE high school students about science, math, engineering, entrepreneurship and invention
• EMPOWER students through problem solving
• ENCOURAGE a sustainable culture of invention in schools and communities

The InvenTeams experience is intended to generate excitement about the rewarding process of identifying a problem or need, brainstorming solutions, and working hands-on to develop a prototype. “Learning by doing” is a central tenet of InvenTeams. Students are exposed to current engineering design methods and teamwork. 

InvenTeams projects empower students to work collaboratively on a problem and create an environment ripe for “Eureka!” moments, where answers are discovered and lessons are learned.

2010 InvenTeams Application Timeline
(Grants for the 2009-2010 academic year)

• Early feedback deadline: March 20, 2009
• Initial application deadline: April 24, 2009
• Excite Award recipient notification: May 8, 2009
• Final application deadline: September 11, 2009
• 2010 InvenTeams announced: October 2, 2009

All deadlines are 5:00 p.m. EDT.

Apply for 2010 InvenTeams.

Link: Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams website