Displaying items by tag: competition

Since innovations drive the economy like no other subject, companies urgently need to focus on developing viable innovations in order to establish sustainable success. Due to this important economic dependency, the German Ministry for Economy and Technology will award the German Innovation Prize on April 4, 2014.

The jury is looking for forward-thinking and outstanding innovations of german companies, which change the business and market paradigm with their innovational power. The prize will be awarded in the categories of large-scale enterprises, small- and medium-sized enterprises and Startups.

Application will be open until October 31, 2013 via http://www.der-deutsche-innovationspreis.de. It is free to apply and an independent jury will choose up to three finalists in each category. Please also see the following website for more information.

Students, research assistants and professors are encouraged to join the start2grow entrepreneurship competition 2014 -  a contest for people with an exciting business idea. Application is now open!

Start2 grow offers the following benefits:

• Free participation
• High prize money, appealing material prizes and a special prize for technology innovations
• Support from over 600 coaches from the fields of economy and science
• A large network which supplies participants with useful contacts from economy and science
• Events like workshops and coaching
• Support in setting up a business plan, which is able to win over investors and decision makers

Start2grow is a competition which helps german founders to implement their business idea. More than 600 voluntary coaches will support participants with their expert knowledge and potential business contacts. Over 4000 teams have participated in the last 31 competitions and have presented their individual ideas and concepts. From these 4000 teams, 900 actually launched their venture and have been able to create more than 5200 jobs - a very promising ratio. Start2grow is the only german entrepreneurship competition which is certified by ISO 9001 for its quality management. It is an initiative by dortmund-project, belonging to the department for economic advancement of the City of Dortmund.

For more information regarding the application please visit www.start2grow.de.

LEUCHTTURM e.V. is an organization whose main goal is the enhancement of social entrepreneurship in the fields of education, science and economy. The organization is addressed at students, employees, founders and self-employed individuals who are interested in the optimization of their ideas and concepts in the field of social entrepreneurship.

The organization is now offering an idea competition for individuals, teams and already exisiting social Startups. LEUCHTTURM e.V. is looking for business ideas which create additional societal value and enhance a sustainable development for our society. 

The prizes of the competition range from monetary prizes (€ 3.000 in total) to consulting vouchers to material prizes from different sponsors. All participants will receive a written feedback from the jury.

The application period is from October 8, 2013 - October 28, 2013 and the winners will be announced on November 27, 2013. Please see http://www.ideenwettbewerb-leuchtturm.de/ideenwettbewerb/ and the attached document for further information.

Turning Ideas into StartUps

InnoWerft’s Business Plan Challenge is an exciting competition for innovative minds who already have a business plan or business idea but have not necessarily founded their own business yet. The competition is aimed at individuals or founding teams with an innovative idea within the technology and software industry.

The winners will receive substantial consulting and mentoring in order to make the business model and business plan viable and will receive support in realizing the business idea through professional coaching teams worth up to 15.000 €. Further, successful participants will gain access to SAP Business-Know-How, to the infrastructure of the city of Walldorf and research expertise from the Information System research institute in Karlsruhe.

Hand in your ideas until August, 18th 2013 by filling out the attached One Pager and register at InnoWerft using this link. For further information please see the attached document or visit www.innowerft.com. 

Founders and young entrepreneurs can now apply for the ‘Mannheim Existenzgründerpreis 2014’, a competition for innovative Mannheim start-ups. The contest is conducted by the business magazine ‘Mannheim – Stadt im Quadrat’ and participants can apply until June 19th, 2013.

Your application has to fulfil the following requirements

• Your venture was founded after July 1st, 2011.
•         Your venture’s headquarter is placed in Mannheim.
•         Your venture operates in one of the following industries: Information technology, communication technology, Medical engineering, Bioengineering, Music Industry, Creative industry.

The winner of the award will win the symbolic sum of 2014 Euros and will be presented by Mannheim’s mayor Dr. Peter Kurz. The second prize of the competition is a photo shooting worth 1500 Euros, sponsored by Mannheim’s founder network ‘Start im Quadrat’.

An independent jury, chaired by Michael Grunert – publisher and chairman of the   faculty for economic and structural development, will choose the winners.

Mannheim’s mayor Dr. Peter Kurz and economic mayor Michael Grötsch will present the award at a big gala event with many guests from politics and different industries.

Application Details:

Please submit your standardized ‘Onepager’ application to the faculty for economic and structural development of the city of Mannheim until June, 19th 2013.

Fachbereich für Wirtschafts- und Strukturförderung der Stadt Mannheim

Matthias Henel

Tel.: 0621 293-2154

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Further Information: http://www.gruenderverbund.info

This year’s "Baden-Württemberg Goes Mobile" competition will enter ist next round:

Innovative mobile project ideas have tob e submitted until 31st of January 2013. There will be new categories and higher prize money this year.

There will be a Launch event and a presentation of last year’s competition on 15th November 2012 in the Fou Fou Bar.

How the contest functions:

For each category, a jury selects the current best idea in February 2013, so that the different winners fcan start implementing their ideas from March 2013.

The prize money will be paid as follows:

€ 1,000 at the start of the program, € 4,000 after three months oft he competition and for the final evaluation of a further € 5,000 after the final evaluation oft he project. In autumn 2013 there will be a final competition where the products oft he different categories compete against each other and the winner will receive € 200 prize money.

The program 'young innovators' (Junge Innovatoren) supports young research assistants of universities and other research institutes in order to become self-employed while producing and marketing innovative products or processes. Since 1995, over 200 different projects have been supported and you could be the next in line profiting from this great opportunity.

The program is designed to support an alternative to paid employment and is supposed to increase the technology and know-how transfer between Universities and the economy. Especially promising fields of business such as optoelectronics, biotechnology, medical technology, solar technology, automation techniques and mechatronics are of high interest. An existing business plan is a prerequisite for applying for the program.

'Young Innovators' is now entering its next round of financing which will start January 1, 2014. The application deadline is September 15, 2013, so make sure to apply with all required documentation as soon as possible.

The program does not financially support the startup itself, but rather focuses on supporting the founders and covering their living expenses so they can purely focus on advancing their business. Further, the program grants founders up to 5.500 Euros for coaching classes and educational development.

Please find attached further information regarding the support program and visit http://www.junge-innovatoren.de/ for more detailed information.