The Ernst & Young (EY) Startup Challenge, a six-week mentorship program attracting talents in emerging technology, has announced that it is returning with a focus on building blockchain solutions for two important industry challenges, energy trading and digital rights management.

According to the official release, during the six-week EY Startup Challenge, six startups will be selected to move into an innovation hub in London. The challenge will have a series of educational workshops, and regular contact with market leading businesses. It will also have access to a selection of mentors from EY and its clients.

“As one of the most globally integrated professional services networks, we work with some of the world’s largest organizations to help them tackle their most pressing issues,” Steve Varley, Chairman and Managing Partner of EY UK and Ireland said. “The EY Startup Challenge is a hugely important initiative for EY and brings together our people, our clients, and other industry professionals to help exciting young startups with their innovative ideas. The EY Startup Challenge helps to develop and refine solutions and builds business relationships that continue well beyond the end of the programme.”

The startups for the first time will produce prototypes which will enable potential clients to interact with their products. In terms of digital rights management, the challenge will focus on areas including tracking the content rights, making and receiving payments for use of proprietary content to content owners, among others.

Also, issues in energy trading will be tackled as blockchain technology has the potential to help energy trading organizations to transform the way trades are created and settled. It also drives down costs and increases the speed, thus reducing the risks in the market.

“We are very excited to be holding a third EY Startup Challenge in London after two successful programmes here and one in Berlin. This time, we are looking for startups using blockchain that have a beta product launched, have some seed funding, and are looking for access to clients and customers in order to continue to grow and develop. If you are one of these startups, we would love to hear from you,” Jamie Qiu, Founder and Lead of the EY Startup Challenge said.

Startups can apply for the challenge with a deadline on 14th August for submissions. The program will begin in early September with an induction day and the challenge will formally commence from 12th September. The program ends with a showcase day on 20th October where startups demonstrate their solutions.

Ernst & Young (trading as EY) is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London. It provides assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to companies. The organization operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries.