For the second year in a row, the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, or MCE, has been named a finalist in the Outstanding Emerging Centre category of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers awards.

The GCEC held its annual conference late last month, and handed out 2020 awards in nine categories to recognize the best of university entrepreneurship worldwide. For the second time in its four-year history, MCE was a finalist in the outstanding emerging centre category. The top prize was shared by four of the six finalists.

The MCE was the only finalist from outside the U.S. in the category, which attracted 17 submissions.

“This recognition highlights that the MCE continues to bring world-class training and resources to Memorial’s students,” MCE Director Florian Villaumé told the Memorial University Gazette. “This support is comparable to universities with bigger budgets and more established ecosystems.”

Launched in 2016 at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the MCE is an entrepreneurship centre whose mission is to nurture and support entrepreneurial-minded students throughout the university and to provide them with training and access to funding.

The Gazette said participation at the MCE has grown from 20 students in 2017 to more than 300 today, and the centre has hosted more than 100 entrepreneurial work terms. MCE-supported startups have raised $13.2 million and have created more than 150 jobs, said the report.