Start Your Career Now - By Developing One Smart Idea With The Power To Transform Society

HOUSTON, Dec. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell is calling for students to enter a global contest that gives them the opportunity to develop ideas to help tackle some of the world's biggest challenges.

The Shell Ideas360 initiative aims to develop an innovation to address the issue of providing global access to three of the most basic human needs: food, water and energy.

Employers are looking for evidence of critical thinking and problem solving skills, a 2016 survey from PayScale showed.¹ The study supports the findings of a 2015 report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities that showed communication skills and teamwork were top of recruiters' lists when interviewing university leavers.²

Launching Shell Ideas360, Shell Vice President of Recruitment Jeroen de Weerd said: "The world's largest and most innovative companies are constantly competing for the best talent. Getting involved in competitions like Shell Ideas360 gives students a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate their ability and provide a stepping-stone to achieving greater things in life."

Shell Ideas360 has been the catalyst for inspiring innovations such as nature-inspired self-cooling cars, boats powered by waves and footsteps that can be transformed into light.

As the world's population increases so does the stress on the planet's resources. Access to, and aspirations for higher living standards means we all need to get involved and combine efforts in taking care of our planet.

Shell Ideas360 is far more than an opportunity to gather innovative concepts to improve communities. Along with giving students the opportunity to showcase their skills, it provides the chance to learn from global experts, meet industry leaders and work on presentation skills by pitching ideas in public.

Participants can enter on their own or in a team of up to three people, with a chance to discuss their ideas in an online community. Each member of the finalist teams will travel to the 2017 Make the Future festival in London, and receive a personalised medal.

The winning team will receive the Shell Ideas360 trophy and each member of that team will win a National Geographic Adventure – with previous winners travelling to locations including the Galapagos Islands and the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

Almost 1,000 student teams from 140 countries worked on their innovations during the 2016 Shell Ideas360 competition.

Last year's winners were a team from the University of Illinois who developed The Lean Mean Graphene Machine – a coating process that cools water pipes in condensers, helping make power plants more efficient while minimising their environmental footprint.

Last year, team Blemished from The University of Manchester, developed an idea to help combat food waste. They found that every year, retail chains and supermarkets reject a staggering 20-40% of perfectly edible produce simply because it is misshapen or 'imperfect'. Blemished aims to source this produce from farmers and sell it to bulk buyers such as restaurants and cafes as well as individual households via an online platform offering a produce delivery service at low costs. This should in turn reduce food waste and therefore the excess methane that is produced from the decomposition of unused produce, which harms the environment.

And the 2015/16 finalists from the Indian Institute of Technology developed a system to increase the country's crop production by 1.5%.

Time is running out to join the contest – ideas need to be registered by noon (GMT) on 20 January, 2017. For full terms and conditions and to enter visit www.shellideas360.com

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this announcement "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this announcement refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to "joint ventures" and "joint operations" respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest. 

This announcement contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', "schedule", ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this announcement and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement, 21 November 2016. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.

[1] http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skills

[2] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/20/study-finds-big-gaps-between-student-and-employer-perceptions

SOURCE Shell Oil Company

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