This is how universities get involved in Santander X Explorer

The role of universities in Santander X Explorer is very important: they are often the first places where many people discover that entrepreneurship is a tool with the potential to improve the world. The university acts as a catalyst, spreading the program’s calls for applications among its students and serving as a bridge for them to test if their idea can become a viable project.

But their work does not stop there. At Santander X Explorer, we offer these institutions the opportunity to actively engage in the entrepreneurial journey of their program participants, supporting them to varying degrees during the twelve weeks they spend experimenting, validating (or not) hypotheses, and acquiring skills that will last a lifetime. Thus, each center can choose its level of involvement among these three options:

Participation Mode 1: Coordination + Selection + Dissemination.
Participation Mode 2: Selection + Dissemination.
Participation Mode 3: Dissemination.

Depending on the position chosen, the university will need to combine activities of:

Dissemination: communicating the programme to the educational community, alumni, and other potential interested parties during the time the call for applications is open. Santander X Explorer provides a series of content and materials to support this process, as well as access to a monitoring panel to check the progress of the applications.

Selection: selecting the group of projects that will participate in Santander X Explorer through the institution, accepting the invitation as an evaluator from the Santanderx.com platform. An evaluation rubric is provided to help identify the profile of ideas that can gain the most benefit from the programme.

Coordination: the institution commits to designating a person to perform the tasks of programme coordination and accompany students throughout the twelve weeks, with an estimated dedication of 4 to 8 hours per week at most. All Coordinators also have the possibility of joining Explorer Hub, a global learning community where they can connect with each other, participate in training sessions, and work groups to share best practices.