Five years of Development Awards
A program asking for your time should show its own numbers. Here is every year since the awards began.
Figures as of September 2026.
What campuses have funded
You know what your program needs. These are the uses that have come up most often across recent award years — not a prescribed list.
Prize money, judging, promotion, and the workshop series that gets students ready to enter one.
Non‑dilutive money that lets a student team build the thing instead of describing it. Often the first money into a venture.
Getting teams and advisors to regional and national competitions, including e‑Fest and the events beyond it.
Video and editing equipment, software, maker supplies, and improvements to the room where students actually work.
Reaching students in every major — and in some cases local high schools — who have not yet used the word founder about themselves.
Bringing in founders and operators, and building your own capacity to coach teams through a submission.
Funds are for co‑curricular entrepreneurship programming and for preparing undergraduate teams for e‑Fest — competitions, workshops, events, and other faculty‑led initiatives outside the classroom.
What the award made possible
Better tools, and the coaching capacity to use them
Seed funding that is still producing revenue
When the budget makes it possible at all
What the award made possible
Better tools, and the coaching capacity to use them
Seed funding that is still producing revenue
When the budget makes it possible at all
Eligibility
A formal entrepreneurship center is not required. Advisors running a program out of a department or a single course are welcome. See the full Rules & Eligibility.
The application
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Most applicants complete the form in one sitting. Full W‑9 guidelines are on the application page.
Three things: promote e‑Fest on campus, ensure at least one undergraduate team from your institution submits to the Online Round, and explore the free teaching resources on EIX.org and tell us how you used them.
No match, and no institutional cost share.
Yes. Several campuses have received awards in multiple years and used them to build something that compounds.
Yes. Every eligible school receives $2,500 — no tiers and no negotiation.
First‑come, first‑served, subject to eligibility and fit with e‑Fest goals. There is no competitive panel — apply early rather than perfectly.
By check, after you submit your institution’s W‑9. It must use the institution’s EIN — not an individual SSN — and the address on it is where the check goes, so use one valid for several months.
