Just learned about The Big Start Business Plan Competition for students in the United Arab Emirates. The competition is supported by Al Tamimi Investments.

From the Big Start ‘What’ page:

We believe that there are students out there with amazing business start-up ideas, who deserve to be encouraged and motivated to take the next step. We’re looking for these students – their business ideas can be in any category – and we’ll choose the most commercially viable business plan/s to invest in.

Every successful business starts with five key elements: a good idea; a robust business plan; a committed start-up support team; sufficient funding; and a strong desire to succeed. At this point you have the good idea and the desire to succeed – we’ll provide the tools to translate your good idea into a robust business plan and if we believe that your plan has what it takes, we’ll provide the final two elements, an expert start-up support team, and the funding.

The successful student/s will become engaged with Al Tamimi Investments and will be nurtured and mentored throughout the business start-up phase by an experienced team from Al Tamimi Investments. When the business goes live, the successful student/s will hold the CEO position and an agreed structured shareholding in the company.

Here is a little more information on Al Tamimi:

This initiative has been created by Al Tamimi Investments. This is the first year of an annual program which aims to cultivate, inspire and reward young people’s interest in entrepreneurship within the UAE. Al Tamimi Investments is a dynamic, diversified holding company based in Dubai. In addition to our own initiatives, we offer Venture Capital to entrepreneurs and enterprises across the Arabian Gulf and wider Middle East region.

The deadline to enter Round 1 is December 23rd. If you get through, you’ll be invited to Dubai for a business plan workshop in January 2011.

The Big Start.