Deadline: October 14, 2019
Applications for the MTN Academic Research Development and Innovation Challenge 2019 are now open. The MTN ARDIC is an end-to-end support system where selected students would translate their ideas into solutions through a seamless access to applicable tools, data, platform and hands-on mentoring.
At the end of the challenge, MTN would provide the top 6 well-motivated Masters/PhD researchers who want to translate their research ideas into high-impact innovations with enabling platforms, APIs, data, training, mentorship and experimental sandbox for six months following their selection to further develop the ideas towards commercialization.
Prizes
The perks for the 6 winners:
- MTN Support: MTN will provide N1,000,000 to the winners as well as enabling platforms, APIs, data, training, mentorship to further develop the ideas towards commercialization.
- 6 Months Acceleration: The Investment Readiness program is a flexible, tech and data centered accelerator designed to support startups with global expertise and insights.
Eligibility
Applicants must
- Must be a registered current postgraduate (Masters or Doctorate) student of an accredited Nigerian university or research institute
- Must have received confirmation from faculty and commenced research in one of the focus areas below
- Must be interested in applying the findings from his/her research to solve practical socio-economic challenges in Nigeria
- Must provide evidence of rightful ownership of the research topic/idea submitted for consideration
- Must agree to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be drawn between relevant parties (MTN and other Implementing Partners) at relevant stages of the challenge
- Must have commenced and been studying the chosen research area for at least 8 months. Students who have completed their research study but are yet to graduate from their universities are also eligible to apply
Qualifying Research Areas
- Economic & Commercial Focus
- Econometric modeling and Advanced Scenario Analysis for Telco industry using macro-economic data
- Media Optimization and Attribution Modeling of media advertising spend
- Market footprint optimization for retail
- Geo-marketing and Community churn modeling
- Digital Media Optimization and real-time planning model
- Use of GIS/Satellite Data for market sizing, characterization and SME clustering/valuation
- Innovation for High Social Impact
- Innovative Biometrics for multi-sectoral customer identification
- Rural Telephone coverage technology and strategies
- High scalable impact research in Block Chain for Telco and FinTech
- Use of GIS and customer migration data for Health/Epidemiological and Smart City planning
- AgriTech with emphasis on use of technology for agricultural yield optimization, storage and preservation
- MedTech with emphasis on malaria prevention tech-solutions, efficient drug distribution, maternal-infant & child mortality reduction
- Customer Complaints modeling using new media data and NLP
Application
For more information, visit MTN ARDIC.
