The Kauffman Foundation’s Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Foundation announced last week that it was launching a Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition, designed to recruit highly educated and creative women with world-changing ideas consider entrepreneurship and commercialization of those ideas. Co-sponsored by Astia, partner of The NextWomen, the competition ends January 15, 2011, and the prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to TED 2011.

This announcement comes on the heels of recent survey figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which reveal that women-led businesses are growing rapidly, but their revenues are not keeping pace. The survey data from 2007 show that women-owned companies comprise 28.7% of all U.S. businesses and generated $1.2 trillion in revenue. In contrast, men-owned companies employed 41.5 million people, more than five times the number employed by women-owned companies, and generated $8.5 trillion. Dana Lewis, executive director of the National Women’s Business Council, said the data shows women-owned businesses are a fast-growing segment of the economy. “But there is more work to be done.”

US based female scientist and engineers should submit their ideas by January 15^th 2011.

"This is not a business plan competition. This is about letting breakthrough ideas be heard, and identifying the people who will make them a reality. No idea is too early stage and no dream is too big."