Awards, Applications, and Nominations

The Iowa Innovation and Entrepreneurship Honors, hosted by the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center recognizes outstanding entrepreneurial accomplishments of our alumni, students, faculty, staff, and Venture School participants.

Recipients of these awards exhibit passion, devotion and innovation in planning and deploying their startup/business, and have made significant progress over the years as determined by metrics such as jobs created and revenue generated.

General Application Guidelines

1. Graduates, former students, faculty, and staff of the University of Iowa or past participants in any JPEC-affiliated programming such as Business Consulting, Iowa Enterprise Internships, Iowa Venture Mentoring Service, NSF I-Corps, and/or Venture School may apply. Please see individual award descriptions for additional details.
2. We encourage entrepreneurs and innovators from any industry to apply for our awards.
3. With the exception of the Entrepreneurial Leadership and Mentor of the Year Awards, the nominee must have played a central role in creating and/or developing a new business enterprise or have reimagined or significantly grown an existing business enterprise.
4. The applicant should be respected as a leader in the industry and community, as demonstrated by involvement in industry, community, and service organizations and/or activities.
5. The applicant should be a good ambassador for the University of Iowa and/or Iowa JPEC.
6. If there are multiple applicants who meet the criteria within one business, they may ALL be recognized in a single application for each award.
7. Current Iowa JPEC faculty and staff are ineligible for awards. 

If you have questions regarding an application, email Jeralyn Westercamp.