DURHAM, N.H.—From a large field of entries, 16 finalists are advancing to the final round of the 2019 New Hampshire Social Venture Innovation Challenge Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, beginning at 9:15 a.m. in Holloway Commons at the University of New Hampshire. Learn about the teams and their ideas to solve pressing sustainability problems.
At 12:40 p.m. in the Memorial Union Building’s Granite State Room, the SVIC awards will be announced and UNH’s 2019 Social Innovators of the Year award will be presented to Harriet and Alan Lewis, co-founders of Alnoba, a gathering place for changemakers dedicated to developing leadership, models of sustainability and stronger communities. They will deliver a keynote address on how the next generation can be equipped with the knowledge and tools to be successful in tackling humanity’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.
All events are free and open to the public, but space is limited and registration is required. The finalists will compete for cash and in-kind prizes worth almost $30,000. Guests are also invited to join contestants, finalists and winners, judges, sponsors, UNH faculty, staff and alumni and the broader community at a networking reception and celebration, sponsored by New Hampshire Community Development Authority and NH Business Finance Authority, immediately following the awards ceremony.
The SVIC engages aspiring and practicing student and community social entrepreneurs in designing novel, sustainable, business-orientated solutions to some of society’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. It is an idea-stage competition with the goal of inspiring innovative, solution-orientated thinking and providing a forum to shine a light on these ideas.
Lead sponsors include Impax Asset Management, Kennebunk Savings Bank, Nixon Peabody, and Timberland, as well as sponsors: AMI Graphics, CCA Global Partners, Cirtronics, Clean Energy NH, Cole Haan, Lonza, MegaFood, New Hampshire Business Review, New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs, Prime Buchholz, ReVision Energy and W.S. Badger.
The SVIC is a collaborative, interdisciplinary event, organized by UNH’s Center for Social Innovation & Enterprise, a partnership between the UNH Sustainability Institute, the Peter T. Paul College of Business & Economics, and the Carsey School of Public Policy, and co-hosted by UNHInnovation and Net Impact UNH.
The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation, and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health, and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea, and space.