Just more than two weeks remain for startups to apply for the fifth annual SXSW Interactive Accelerator. Applications are due Nov. 9 for the Accelerator, a competitive pitch event featuring 56 startups with innovative new products and services, which takes place March 11-13 during South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas.

Forty-eight companies will be chosen to participate March 11-12 in the main Accelerator event, which features six categories: social technology, innovative web, news technology, health technology, mobile technology and entertainment and gaming technology. Eight more startups will compete in the Accelerator event for music technology on March 13.

All those companies will have the opportunity to pitch before a live audience and panel of expert judges, and two startups — one for the first six categories and one for the music category — will emerge as winners.

Accelerator eligibility requirements dictate that participating startups cannot have raised more than $5 million in funding and must have a product or service that launched or is scheduled to launch between March 15, 2012 and June 15, 2013. Submitting an Accelerator application carries a $200 fee.

AgLocal, the Kansas City area startup creating a marketplace for pasture-raised meats, was the lone Silicon Prairie startup chosen for last year's Accelerator, from a pool of some 670 applicants. For more on the 2012 Accelerator, check out the SXSW recap of the event.