The central element of the Nicol Entrepreneurial Award is a local competition held at each participating university. Although the exact process may differ from campus to campus, in general they follow the same flow.

Individual students or student teams begin by registering for the competition and submitting an outline of their plan to their university’s Nicol Award faculty advisor. Teams whose entries are accepted are then asked to prepare a more detailed plan, and after additional review, a set of teams is invited to make a formal presentation to a local panel of judges. Typically the local judges are members of the faculty, local business people, alumni, and other entrepreneurs from the local community.

The local panel of judges selects three winners from that campus, and cash prizes are awarded to each of these three winning teams as follows:

• $5,000 for first place
• $2,000 for second
• $1,000 for third

The first-place team from each campus is then entered into the National Nicol competition.

An additional feature of the Nicol competition being implemented at some of the universities this year is an Elevator Pitch competition, with prize money. The elevator pitch, because it is an informal competition for individuals, is meant to serve as a gentle introduction to the entrepreneurial process.