The Innovation Fund awards are designed to support ventures at different stages of development. Choose the award that best matches where your venture is today and what you are ready to accomplish next.

$1000 Design Award

The Design Award is for founders who have developed a meaningful understanding of a problem, customer, user, or market and are using what they have learned to make informed decisions about a solution.

Before applying for a Design Award, you should:

• Have conducted customer, user, stakeholder, or market research and be able to provide evidence of that work;
• Be able to describe the problem you are addressing, who you are designing for, the competitive landscape, and your current thinking about how the venture could generate revenue or otherwise sustain itself;
• Be able to explain how what you have learned is shaping the solution you are designing; and
• Have a clear next step that will allow you to create, test, learn, or make an important decision about the solution.

You do not need to have a prototype or other tangible solution to apply for Design.

$2000 Build Award

The Build Award is for founders who have moved beyond a purely conceptual solution and are ready to invest more seriously in developing and testing it.

Before applying for a Build Award, you should:

• Have created, developed, designed, or demonstrated something tangible enough to evaluate or test. This does not need to be a fully functional prototype or finished product;
• Be able to show reviewers what exists today and explain what you have learned from your work so far;
• Have a clear and appropriately scoped plan for what you will develop, build, launch, or improve next;
• Understand the major resources and challenges involved in executing that plan; and
• Be able to identify what you need to learn or prove next and how you will generate evidence to answer those questions.

What counts as “something tangible” will vary by venture and industry. It might be a prototype, mockup, sample, proof of concept, pilot, service model, formulation, physical design, test offering, experimental or technical result, or another meaningful demonstration of your solution.

If your solution is still primarily conceptual and your next step is to determine what you should create or test, the Design Award is likely the better fit.

$5000 Boost Award

The Boost Award is for ventures that have previously received a Build Award and have since demonstrated meaningful progress. The purpose of Boost is to build on that progress and help the venture reach an important next milestone.

Before applying for a Boost Award, you should:

• Have previously been selected to receive a Build Award (or an Implementation Award prior to the 2025–2026 academic year);
• Be able to explain how you used the prior funding and what it enabled you to accomplish;
• Have generated meaningful evidence of progress since Build and be able to explain how what you learned has changed or strengthened the solution or venture;
• Understand the most important questions, challenges, or opportunities facing the venture now;
• Have a compelling and achievable next milestone that follows from what you have learned; and
• Be able to explain specifically how $5000 will help you reach that milestone and what reaching it will change or unlock for the venture.

Meaningful progress looks different across industries. Depending on your venture and stage, evidence might include customer or revenue data, technical or experimental results, product or performance testing, pilot results, clinical or scientific evidence, regulatory milestones, intellectual property, pre-orders, partnerships, impact data, or other relevant evidence. You do not need to demonstrate revenue or a launched product if those measures are not appropriate for your industry or stage.

The key question for Boost is not whether $5000 will fund everything your venture ultimately needs. It is whether $5000 can help you cross an important threshold and meaningfully move the venture forward.

A venture can apply for and be selected to receive a Design or Build Award without previously receiving another type of Innovation Fund Award.

If a venture is selected to receive a Build Award without previously being selected to receive a Design Award, the venture is no longer eligible to apply for a Design Award.

To be eligible for the Boost Award, a venture must have previously been selected to receive a Build Award (or an Implementation Award, prior to the 2025-2026 academic year).

Once a venture is selected to receive a Boost Award, the venture is no longer eligible to apply for any other Innovation Fund Awards, regardless of the composition of the team members or other venture updates.

Notes on Boost Award Eligibility

• If the venture has significantly changed after receiving the Build/Implementation Award, the venture may not be eligible to apply for the Boost Award.
• The Boost Award application must be submitted by the same Lead Applicant who submitted the winning Build/Implementation Award application.
• If the Lead Applicant on the application that was selected to win the Build Award (or Implementation Award) has left the venture and/or no longer meets the eligibility requirements to be a Lead Applicant and another team member would like to apply for the Boost Award for the same venture, both the previous Lead Applicant and the team member must submit a written request via email to venturelab@upenn.edu to the Innovation Fund staff at least one (1) week prior to the application due date. The proposed new Lead Applicant must meet all eligibility requirements.

In the event that multiple submissions are received for the same venture idea, team, or individual within a single application cycle for a program/award application, Venture Lab will only review the most recent version, as determined by the timestamped submission confirmation. All earlier versions will be disregarded, and the submitters of those versions will not receive feedback or or a review.

Example: If an applicant submits an application for a $1000 Design Award on October 2, 2026 during Cycle #1 and then also submits an application for a $2000 Build Award for the same venture idea on October 3, 2026, also during Cycle #1, the application for the $1000 Design Award will be disqualified without review. This will happen regardless of who the Lead Applicant is on each application.

If an application doesn’t receive an Innovation Fund award, the applicant can apply again for the award in a later application cycle, as long as the applicant, venture, and application all continue to meet the eligibility requirements and criteria.

If an applicant receives an Innovation Fund award, they are eligible to apply again for that same award type with a different venture.

Funds should be used in a way that makes a direct impact on venture development and are appropriate for the venture's stage.

Applicants are required to provide an itemized budget, and, if applying for the next level award, are required to explain how they used the funds from the previous award.

Examples of appropriate uses of funding include but are not limited to: building and testing prototypes, purchasing technical and legal resources, hiring employees or interns, conducting surveys or focus groups, running a pilot or beta test, website development. Note that these are venture stage dependent and might not be appropriate for all stages of venture development.

Examples of inappropriate uses of funding include but are not limited to: reimbursing team members’ personal expenses, paying for a resource students could access free of charge, travel expenses, paying for an expense unrelated to venture development or that won’t make a meaningful impact on venture development.

All funding decisions are made by the Innovation Fund Investment Team, which is composed of current students from across the University of Pennsylvania.

Applications are evaluated on criteria relevant to the specific Innovation Fund award type, aligned with the submitted venture’s development stage.

All Lead Applicants will be notified of their award status by the dates listed on the Innovation Fund webpage.

The exact selection criteria will vary depending on the specific award type. Generally, applicants can expect that the application will be evaluated on the following dimensions -

• Innovation
• Problem & Solution
• Solution 
• Validation Plan
• Market Opportunity & Business Model
• Team
• Use of Funds