Batten Institute

Batten Institute - Ventures - Batten Innovation Grant

Batten Innovation Grants

Overview

Batten Innovation Grants provide direct financial support to student-led, early-stage entrepreneurial projects. Currently enrolled Darden students in the Residential, Executive, and Part-Time MBA formats may apply. Grant funds may only be used for expenses directly related to developing an entrepreneurial idea or new venture. Examples include validating assumptions through experimentation, generating customer insights and feedback, building and testing an MVP, and activities that will enable founders to bring a product to market.  

Grants will be awarded on two cycles for the 2024-25 academic year -- fall and spring. The fall award cycle consists of the Explore award. The spring cycle consists of the Explore and Innovate award. Details on the fall application cycle (due October 1, 2024 by 9am EST) are available below.  

Details on the spring application cycle will be posted early in 2025. The spring grant cycle will feature two grant awards; applicants for the spring Innovate award must have previously been awarded a Batten Innovation Grant or participated in the University of Virginia Entrepreneurship Cup competition as a precursor to their application.  

Please reach out to Batten Program Manager, Anya Eisenfrats, eisenfratsa@darden.virginia.edu with any questions. 
 

A NOTE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF GRANT FUNDS 

Student applicants are strongly encouraged to establish an incorporated entity (i.e. LLC/corporation) to facilitate the distribution of grant funds (if the venture is not already incorporated). Details on that process are available here. Ventures do not need to be incorporated at the time of their grant application. International students should check in with the Batten Institute team prior to pursuing incorporation. 

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID OR HOLD AN OUTSTANDING BALANCE 

Upon application, students who receive financial aid or hold an outstanding balance with Darden will be prompted to contact the Darden Financial Aid Office regarding their application for a Batten Innovation Grant to discuss the potential impact of personally receiving grant funds. 

FALL 2024 APPLICATION 

EXPLORE  

Grant Amount: $500 per venture per application cycle 

The first round of Batten Innovation Grants is designed for entrepreneurial students with an innovative idea in the early stages of customer discovery (hypothesis development, customer interviews, evaluation, refinement). Students who receive this grant have submitted an application that introduces new or improved ideas, concepts, or products with clear understanding of experimentation. Applicants are encouraged to read the introduction of The Experimentation Fieldbook by Jeanne Liedtka, Elizabeth Chen, Natalie Foley, and David Kestner as background on identifying a specific idea to test and how to go about testing the idea (accessible via this link).  

Applications are online-only and reviewed by a 3-member committee composed of Batten Institute and Darden staff. All grant submissions will have the opportunity to receive feedback. The Batten Innovation Grants program is a competitive grant program, with grant awards distributed based on the strength of each venture’s application. For the fall of 2024, the Institute intends to distribute up to 20 grants.   

2024 iLab alums have the opportunity for additional fall Explore grant funding as part of iLab Accelerate Phase participation. Those who qualify will be notified.

APPLICATION DEADLINE // GRANT NOTIFICATION DATE 

Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 9am EST // Monday, October 21, 2024, end of day 

ONLINE APPLICATION QUESTIONS: 

  1. Provide a bio for each member of your team, including specific roles/responsibilities on the team. 
  2. Describe the problem you seek to address. Who experiences the problem? How many people experience it (how large is the market?)? 
  3. What makes you / your team the right people to be solving this problem? 
  4. Describe your concept / product.  
  5. How does your product compare to the current available solutions for your target customers? 
  6. Describe a specific idea (or ideas) that you would like to test with this innovation grant. How will you go about testing that idea, and what do you hope to learn? [For additional background, please reference the Experimentation Field Book linked above] 

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS (no more than 1-page per document, submitted as attachments via the Qualtrics application form) Please use the following file name format: Last Name_Venture Name_Timeline // Last Name_Venture Name_Spending Plan 

  1. Project timeline 
  2. Spending plan: Describe how the grant funds (if awarded) will be used in directly supporting your project. 

POST-GRANT REQUIREMENT 

Submit a one-page final report to the Batten Institute on February 17, 2025.  The report should detail the results of the project, including a final budget that identifies all spent funds and any unspent funds. Recipients should be prepared to answer any follow up questions regarding their use of funds and progress. 

For impact evaluation purposes, applicants will also be asked to provide basic details on the stage of their venture and engagement in other entrepreneurship opportunities.  

APPLY HERE