​The Converge Challenge is Scotland's largest entrepreneurial training programme and competition with prize fund of £160,000+. It’s open to staff and students at Scottish universities and research institutes.

2022 marks the start of its new funding cycle, and with it some exciting changes to its programmes.

• KickStart Challenge will increase from 30 to 50 places, provide additional customer engagement training, and offer more prizes to strengthen the pipeline of early-stage projects.
• Converge Challenge will sharpen its focus on investment readiness and become more competitive with 20 places for the most advanced projects. Finalists will receive additional training to support around investment and funding.
  
• The Impact and Creative Challenges will be changing, with environmental projects getting their own Net Zero Challenge category (10 places), and social impact and creative projects joining into the Create Change Challenge (20 places). Finalists in these categories will also receive additional training in funding/investment.
  
• To accommodate enhanced finalist training, the awards event will take place on 3 November.
  

Converge will open for applications for all four of its programmes on 26 January, with a closing date of 5 April. Training will be delivered with a hybrid model of online and in-person events throughout June, and the Inside Innovation pitching event (hopefully in person!) will take place on 23 June.

In advance of this, and to ensure you and your project is ready, Converge is offering a series of workshops from now until the end of March. Full details are here.​​