"University Graduate Entrepreneurship Service Program" (U-start)
1. Program Overview:
To establish a university-industry collaboration mechanism for innovation and entrepreneurship and provide recent graduates with a platform to realize their entrepreneurial dreams, the Ministry of Education has promoted the "University Graduate Entrepreneurship Service Program (U-start Program)" since 2009. Based on industry-academia collaboration projects, the program leverages the flexibility of micro-enterprises and incubation support to increase entrepreneurship opportunities for university graduates, stimulate university-industry collaboration, and enhance campus innovation and entrepreneurship culture. In the 2017 U-start Program, entrepreneurial teams must consist of at least three members, with at least two-thirds being graduates of the last five academic years (including current year) or current university students (bachelor, master, or doctoral). Teams must partner with universities or colleges with incubation units. Each school may submit up to 15 applications. The school's incubation unit submits the "Entrepreneurial Team Operation Plan" and "Incubation Guidance Plan" for review. Subsidies are provided for incubation guidance fees and basic start-up funds. Teams receiving the basic start-up subsidy and selected as outstanding in Phase 2 may receive an additional NT$250,000 to NT$1,000,000 entrepreneurship award.
2. Eligibility:
Applicants must be universities or colleges with incubation units. Each entrepreneurial team must have at least three members, with at least two-thirds being recent graduates (within the last five academic years) or current students (bachelor, master, or doctoral). Remaining team members may be from the public or foreign nationals with residency visas.
3. Application Restrictions:
◆ Each person may participate in only one team. The team leader must be a recent graduate (within five academic years) or current university student (bachelor, master, or doctoral).
◆ Team members must not have previously received program subsidies and must not have registered a company at the time of application.
◆ All team members must commit full-time to the program during execution and may not hold other employment (applies to in-service students as well).
4. 2017 U-start Program Duration:
◆ Phase 1 – August 15, 2017 to February 14, 2018.
◆ Phase 2 – Awarded entrepreneurial teams will be incubated with the university unit for one year from the date of signing the contract.
5. Contact Information:
◆ Join U-start Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/USTARTFans
◆ Consultation Hotline: 02-2331-6167#7215, #7214
6. Key Guidelines: Guidelines for the review of U-start program funding by the Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education (Guidelines Link)
