Anyone who still is a student (please mention name of the school and semester) and young entrepreneurs who finished their studies max 3 years ago can apply.

• Please read these rules of procedure carefully.
• Please send your application request to isa@startglobal.org.
• We will then send you the screening questionary that you have to fill out completely and truthfully.
• Then return the screening questionary to isa@startglobal.org until the 20th of March 2010 (new deadline)
• You only have a maximal space of 1/2 A4 page for the answer to each question.
• For further information you can contact us under isa@startglobal.org.
• You will be contacted in the course of March 2010 concerning the next steps of this award.

We are looking forward to your application.
Good luck.

START ISA Team

Rules of procedure

1. Purpose

The purpose of these rules of procedure is to retain mandatorily the praxis and the rules during the selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award winner in Switzerland. These rules of procedure are binding for the members of the START association as well as for the impartial jury. These rules of procedure are also available for the candidates and for other interested circles.

2. Admission requirements for the selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award (ISA)

Whoever complies with the following conditions is allowed to apply for the ISA: The entrepreneur bears the responsibility for the start-up.

1. The entrepreneur is student or completed his/her studies 3 years ago.
2. The presented product respectively the presented project has to satisfy the minimum innovation and sustainability criteria.
3. The presented product respectively the presented project has to have commercial viability.

3. Screening process

In a first step, the candidates have to completely and truthfully fill out the ISA questionnaire.

In a second step, the filled out documents will be assessed by START regarding the completeness of the information and the compliance with the minimum criteria for innovation and sustainability. Afterwards, the business plan will be verified on its commercial viability. This screening process will then determine six finalists.

The six finalists will step in front of the jury on the 29^th of April 2010. The finalist will first have to present their product, respectively their project, in max. 10 minutes. Then the finalists will have to face the jury in order to answer their questions (this will happen on the same day).

The jury as a whole will decide afterwards about the winner of the Innovation & Sustainability Award.

4. Confidentiality, repeated participation

START and the ISA jury will handle all information that the candidates will provide during the process about their product, respectively the project, with confidentiality. Only START and the ISA jury have access to the provided information.

Repeated candidacies are possible, whereas this cannot occur in direct succession. Therefore, if a candidate wins the Innovation & Sustainability Award, another application is only possible with another product respectively another project.

5. Jury

The jury is composed of acknowledged personalities of the public and the economic sphere in Switzerland who are economically impartial from START or from any sponsor. The minimum number of jury members is five people, the maximum number is nine. The majority of the jury should be exercising an entrepreneurial function themselves.

The Innovation & Sustainability Award responsible from START is responsible for the smooth flow of the entire screening process. In his/her function the responsible for the award will attend the consultancy of the jury and will provide the jury with all the needed information about the finalists. The responsible for the award has no vote in the consultancy of the jury.

6. Interests binding

It is requested that the jury has actively worked on the forwarded information concerning the finalists before the 29^th of April 2010. Thereby they have to disclose any economic connection and dependency with the candidate(s). Any closer, economical or personal connection has also to be disclosed to the ISA responsible.

7. Selection process

The Innovation & Sustainability Award is not limited to specific categories/sectors. However, the START association is allowed to limit the number of categories. Such a change has always to be contained in the admission requirements.

The selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award winner should occur according to the following criteria:

• Financial performance
• Entrepreneurial overall performance
• Degree of innovation
• Degree of sustainability, which applies to the economical sustainability, the social sustainability and the ecological sustainability
• The entrepreneur’s engagement.

The selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award winner needs at least 3/4 of the votes of the jury. The percentage of the votes will not be disclosed. Equally is the protocol of the jury meetings only destined for the members of the jury.

8. Award

The Innovation & Sustainability Award winner gains a prize of the amount of CHF 5’000, which will be handed over by Ernst & Young. The award winner has the right to make use of the Innovation & Sustainability Award Logo for his/her communication purposes without any limitations in time and place.

9. Derecognition of the award

The Innovation & Sustainability Award is assigned to the product resp. the project, not to the entrepreneur. The Innovation & Sustainability Award can retroactively be derecognitioned by START, if the candidate consciously made false statements during the screening process.

The derecognition forbids the concerned winner any public allusion on the award. The affected winner has to be notified about this.

10. Changes, enactment

The rule of procedure applies for the first time for the program of the year 2010. It can be changed anytime, whereas the agreement of the absolute majority of the jury as well as of Ernst & Young and START are needed.