The application phase of “Food Frontiers 2.0”, an innovation challenge aimed at motivating young entrepreneurs for investing in nutritious and safe food, concluded on Sunday.
A total of 130 applications have been submitted by the deadline. Among them, 22 are females.
The campaign for the contest started on December 2 last year.
As part of the initiative, online campaigns and road shows were held at Dhaka University, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Comilla University, Jashore University of Science and Technology and Daffodil International University.
Webinar was also arranged as part of the campaign. Contest applications were encouraged through webinar.
SM Mahmudul Hasan, acting coordinator of SUN Business Network, SM Arifuzzaman, professor at the Canadian University of Bangladesh and Shakib Bin Rashid, consultant of Ten Minutes School and social influencer were present in the webinar.
Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network, which is co-convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a Switzerland-based international organization and World Food Programme (WFP) jointly organized the contest.
Seven winners (two each from three categories) including one reserved prize for the International Nutrition Olympiad (INO) will get cash and pre-seed funding for implementing a business plan, expansion of the business, and infrastructure development.
The three categories are- Inclusive Business Models for Reaching Lower Income Consumers, Disruptive Technological Innovation and Innovative Marketing Campaigns.
Although the last date for submission was January 15, it was extended till Sunday due to massive responses from the applicants.
A short list was made after scrutinizing the submissions as the first round of selection through a panel of judges from diverse entrepreneurship and academia.
Representatives from the 10 selected business organizations attended a three-day residential boot camp session in the capital as part of investment readiness training and business expansion.
The entrepreneurs whose activities will show new innovative models and technological solutions for the supply of safe and nutritious foods and encourage the intake of those foods will be considered qualified in the contest.
Food Frontiers is an innovative challenge that aims to identify new and innovative ways to reach lower-income consumers with nutritious food products and build the capacity of young entrepreneurs on a sustainable food systems approach and business skills for managing a social enterprise.
The objective is to support innovative business models and technology-based solutions that could be implemented to increase access to nutritious foods.
The National Association of Small and Cottage Industries of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Agricultural University are the strategic partners of this event.