Pereiti prie turinio

InSPiR2eS Global Pitching Research Competition 2024 (IGPRC2024) at Kaunas University of Technology

Svarbiausios | 2024-05-27

🎓 We invite doctoral students and postdocs of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) to participate in a pitching competition at KTU. The best-written pitches will be selected and earn the right to advance through the semi-final of the global pitch competition (IGPRC2024). The winners of the final IGPRC2024 competition will share approximately AUD20,000 monetary prize!

📌 Core Task

The core task of this competition is to produce a written 1,000-word novel research pitch using the “pitching research” framework, PRF (see the skeleton PRF tool on the following page). This tool provides a simple, methodical device to communicate … confidently/succinctly … all the essential elements of a new research proposal to an academic expert e.g., to your thesis supervisor. For a detailed explanation of the PRF, see the latest version of the SSRN paper “Pitching Research” [Faff (2024)].

 Eligibility to participate

  • The competition is open to KTU PhD students and post-docs (the doctoral degree was defended earlier than 5 years ago) from any discipline.
  • Participants must register as InSPiR2eS members (free membership).
  • Research students must complete the free “Pitching Research Matters” Micro-credential Course (PRM MC) on or before the date of submitting their entry and before the closing date (see below). Learning time – 10 hrs. Hours will be awarded for the “Pitching Research Matters” micro-credential course, which could be counted towards 0.5 ECTS according to the decision of the Doctoral Committee of your field of science. The Doctoral Committee of each field of science will decide on the crediting of the course according to the procedure established by KTU. Please contact the KTU Doctoral School (email: doktorantura@ktu.lt) for a more detailed credit transfer procedure.

🏆 Competition Prizes and Awards

The KTU winners of the best-written pitches will go to the semi-final. The semi-final and final will take place remotely and will be organized by Prof. Robert Faff (University of Queensland, Australia).

The following potential prizes await the ultimate winners of the global IGPRC2024:

The overall IGPRC2024 winner receives AUD5,000, the second receives AUD2,000, and the remaining grand finalists receive AUD1,000 each. Additional smaller cash prizes are available for other categories of high achievement. Further, all those making the semi-final and grand final rounds will receive an official certificate recognising their achievement. The total prize pool is approximately AUD20,000.

📣 Important Dates & Timeline

  • March-August 2024: this time window allows IGPRC2024 entrants to complete the PRM MC prior to submitting their competition
  • 10 May 2024 – 20 September 2024: registration link for KTU pitch competition.
  • 15 October 2024: pitching seminar given by Prof. Robert Faff to pitch competition participants.
  • 16-17, 21-22 October 2024: the participants of the pitch competition will have the opportunity to consult with Prof. Robert Faff individually.

📅 23 October 2024: KTU pitching competition and announcement of winners who will participate in the semi-final of IGPRC2024.

📌 Web Resources  

  • SSRN paper: Faff, Robert W., InSPiR2eS Global Pitching Research Competition 2024 (IGPRC2024) … What, Why, How, Who, and When? (February 10, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4722247

👉 Further Enquiries contact assoc. prof. Neringa Gerulaitienė (neringa.gerulaitiene@ktu.lt)

IGPRC2024 Co-organizers at KTU

Robert Faff, FASSA, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland. He has an international reputation in empirical finance research: securing 14 Australian Research Council grants (with total funding exceeding AUD4 million); 360+ refereed journal publications – 46 x A* (ABDC); career citations 23,000+ (Google Scholar); with a h-index of 74. His particular passion is nurturing the career trajectories of early career researchers. Robert has supervised almost 50 PhD students to successful completion and examined more than 50 PhD dissertations.

Building on a 40-year academic career, his signature focus is “Pitching Research”, with worldwide penetration signalled by: (a) 27,000+SSRN downloads; (b) 400+ pitching talks/events; (c) at 37 Australian universities; and (d) spanning 54 different countries.

Further, he is the Founder & President of the InSPiR2eS research network, a globally-facing research network primarily aimed at research training and capacity building, resting on a foundation theme of responsible science. In addition, Robert is Creator & Chief Scientist of the InSPiR2eS Centre for Responsible Science (IC4RS).

Neringa Gerulaitienė is an associate professor in management at Kaunas University of Technology and a researcher at the University of Montpellier (France). Her main research interests are in family business, innovation, dynamic managerial capabilities, digital healthcare platforms, and organizational resilience.

Neringa has more than nine years of experience working on 7 national and 5 international research and studies projects. She has also actively participated at more than 20 international conferences, such as the British Academy of Management (BAM), Strategic Management Society (SMS), and others, and published papers in high-level journals such as Technovation, Baltic Journal of Management. Neringa has received several awards including the most active young researcher at KTU in 2023; researcher of the year at KTU School of Economics and Business in 2021; the most active PhD student at KTU in 2017; and academic achievements by the Research Council of Lithuania in 2018 and 2014.

Further Neringa is a country node leader of a global research network “InSPiR2eS” in Lithuania. She is also the co-author of two inventions that are protected by the intellectual property of the European Union. Moreover, she is an editorial board member of the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Venturing. Since 2009, Neringa has developed her academic competencies at various international universities including: the Haas Business School, UC Berkeley, USA (July 2019 and June 2018); Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (February 2022); ESADE Ramon Llull University, Spain (2017); and St. Gallen University, Switzerland (2020).