The Norman Esch Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards
The Norman Esch Awards provides financial awards (from $5,000 to $25,000) and experiential learning opportunities to students enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science.
Whether you’re a current or aspiring startup founder, working on a cool side project, or have an idea for a solution that solves a problem, we want to help you grow your skills.
The Norman Esch Awards is broken up into 3 financial awards to represent the 3 stages of an idea or startup.
The award categories are as follows:
Stage 1: Interaction Award ($5,000)
This award focuses on the person, and is granted to FEAS students who have a new idea that does not exist in the market and solves a problem.
Stage 2: Development Award ($8,000)
This award is granted to FEAS students who have completed formal market research and have proven a demand for their idea in the market.
Stage 3: Market Readiness Award ($25,000)
This award is granted to FEAS students who have completed formal business plans and/or alpha or beta prototype(s).
In addition to their financial award, all Norman Esch Award winners will receive support from the Innovation Boost Zone (IBZ) - an early-stage technology incubator at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Through IBZ, Norman Esch Award winners will get free access to the experiential learning opportunities, workshops, resources and networks to help grow their skills - whether it be through building your own startup, or building your portfolio.
Are you ready to make impact?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Students enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University (in first year, second semester of studies or later), and have a GPA of 1.67 or higher, are eligible to apply for the Norman Esch Awards.
For full eligibily requirements, please see our apply page.
There is no set number of winners for each award stage. Each stage is capable of having multiple winners!
We recommend that you only apply to the stage that is most applicable to the current state of your startup or project.
You can attend our information sessions where we review application best practices and also book time with our advisors who can provide you with 1-on-1 support with your application. For these details, please see our support page.
The Norman Esch Awards are run twice a year in the Fall and Winter semesters.