The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship was named one of five finalists in the emerging entrepreneurship centre category of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Center’s annual awards.

Though the St John’s-based organization didn’t win, the MCE was the only Canadian centre, and one of four outside the U.S., to be recognized as a finalist in any of the eight award categories

The Houston-based GCEC presents awards each year in the hopes of celebrating the best of university entrepreneurship. The GCEC is now made up of more than 225 university-based entrepreneurship centers ranging from well-established and nationally ranked to new and emerging centers.

“This award is a celebration of entrepreneurship in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Atlantic Canada in general,” said MCE Director Florian Villaumé in an email. “We are celebrating it today, and we will continue to focus on increasing MCE’s impact starting tomorrow."

The award for emerging entrepreneurship centres recognizes those that are no more than five years old and considers the centre’s objectives, campus and community engagement, program portfolio and metrics to date.

The dual winners of the category were the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College and the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University. The other finalists were the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Rice University; HUJI Innovate at the Hebrew University Jerusalem; and the MCE.

The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship supports student-led entrepreneurship projects at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The centre’s major event each year is the Woodward Cup pitching competition, which awards tens of thousands of dollars in development capital to young companies.