Rice eXperiment Fund Grant

LILIE RICE EXPERIMENT FUND FOR ALL CURRENT STUDENTS

The Rice Experiment Fund is a program designed to enable you to get straight to testing the assumptions in your student venture. Open to any current Rice Student, RXF pairs equity-free funding with guided mentoring sessions to help you maximize the impact of your experiment.

Applications for the Lilie Rice Experiment Fund are currently closed, but they will reopen in the fall semester. When the application process opens, any current Rice University undergraduate or graduate student can apply for up to $500 per semester in equity-free funding to develop and implement an exceptional idea, innovation, discovery, or entrepreneurial undertaking in the course of their studies.

With up to $4,000 of equity-free funding available to a student over the lifetime of the program, this is a unique opportunity to get out there, test your assumptions, and iterate quickly!

In addition to financial support, the winners of this award will have the support of faculty, mentors, and programs of the broader university and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

RXF is an annual pool of funds dedicated to financially supporting early-stage undergraduate and graduate student ventures.
Recipient(s) may be awarded up to $500 per semester to develop and implement an exceptional idea, innovation, discovery, or entrepreneurial undertaking in the course of their studies at Rice.
The recipient will be allowed to withdraw funds (not exceeding their awarded amount) incrementally to support the design and growth of the project. Limited to one time a semester.
In addition to financial support, the winner(s) of this award will have the support of faculty, mentors, and programs of the broader university and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

WHO CAN APPLY?

Currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate Rice University students.
Any major or discipline is welcome to apply.
Students can apply individually or as part of a team. There is no limit to the size of your team.
All applying individuals and team members must be in good academic standing.

HOW TO APPLY

When the application process reopens in the fall semester, completion will require you to provide a short explanation of your idea, the problem you hope to solve, and how the funding will help you better understand the target market and solution. Create an estimated, line-item budget for the funding needs of your venture. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

What are some examples that RXF could support?

Conducting in person or virtual focus groups or customer development interviews.
Creating a prototype of the proposed product or service to better articulate and test the solution.
Running small dollar ad campaigns to gather data to test and hone customer acquisition channels.
Setting up a Shopify or other e-commerce implementation to test demand.
Recording and distributing content, or filming videos for Kickstarter campaigns.

If you have other ideas, needs, or are unsure if you qualify, please reach out to lilie@rice.edu with any questions.

What to expect:

If your application is accepted, you’ll have access to guided mentoring sessions that will help you design and implement your experiment. You’ll receive up to $500 per semester to fund your venture, and Lilie will work with you to help you maximize the impact of your experiment.

Session 1: We’ll set up an initial meeting with you to outline the program, go over your experiment, and to talk about the design of experiments.
You’ll have some time to identify the variables and metrics associated with your experiment
Session 2: We’ll meet to decide which variable(s) and assumption(s) you’d like to measure, then brainstorm ways to effectively test these variables and assumptions.
We’ll get funding in your hand at this stage, and you’ll have some time to run your experiment and collect results. The amount of time taken to complete the experiment is variable, but we’ll agree on a check in date ahead of time.
Session 3: We’ll go over your experimental results, identify any next steps, and determine the need for further iterations.
You’ll have some time to put together the results of your experiment into a short, simple report (no minimum length, though it should be thorough enough to make future reference feasible)
Session 4: We’ll go over your report and any lingering questions you may have. If further iterations are desired, we’ll revise assumptions and continue the process from Session 2 or 3 as needed.