Changing the world! - Boom in entrepreneurial ideas continues in Corona year

The aim of the competition is to promote the development of extraordinary and, above all, innovative ideas from the university environment. "The UNIKAT Ideas Competition is about cultivating a lively and open culture of ideas at our university so that the diverse ideas from all the university's departments don't disappear into a drawer but are made useful to society," says Jörg Froharth, head of UniKasselTransfer Incubator and managing director of Science Park Kassel GmbH. This seems to work, more than 500 idea sketches have been submitted in the last eleven years of the competition. Our region is permeated with startups and companies that found their origin in the UNIKAT ideas competition. Despite the lockdown and online semester, the 12th UNIKAT Ideas Competition is once again a complete success with a total of 82 entries. The participants come from all departments of the university. "It is striking that many ideas were submitted by interdisciplinary teams," says Sandra Wilhelm, a staff member at the UniKasselTransfer incubator, happily. Most ideas were submitted from the Department of Economics and the School of Art, followed by the Department of Ecological Agricultural Sciences.

There was one important innovation: This year, ideas that focus on solving social challenges will be awarded a new special prize, "Social Entrepreneurship - Your Ideas for Our Region." The special prize is intended to provide additional motivation for participants in the ideas competition to develop entrepreneurial ideas that make our region more crisis-proof for the future and thus - in the spirit of social entrepreneurship - above all also offer added value for society as a whole. The prize money of 2,000 euros for the special prize is to be used expressly for the practical implementation of one's own idea.

What happens next for the participants? First of all, all the sketches of ideas will be evaluated by three experts from the business world. The evaluation will be based on the criteria of overall idea, customer benefits, market opportunities and feasibility, and will be supplemented by a "Tips" category in which practical experience can be shared. A summary of their three assessments will be made available to all participants. The ten ideas with the highest scores will be given the opportunity to present to a jury. The jury meeting will decide on the final placements. For the special Social Entrepreneurship Award, a newly appointed panel will evaluate the ideas submitted, particularly in terms of their added social value. The winners will be announced on October 22. The form in which this year's award ceremony will take place has yet to be announced.

The UNIKAT start-up consultancy at the University of Kassel will also be on hand to offer advice and support to participants following the ideas competition. "Developing the ideas together in the coming weeks and months and working with the participants is incredibly enjoyable," says Gabriele Hennemuth, a staff member at UniKasselTransfer Incubator, the University of Kassel's central startup advisory service. "Among other things, interested parties can discuss their business concept with us, find out about possible scholarships, such as the Hessen Ideen Stipendium, the EXIST Stipendium or the Postdoc UNIKAT Fellowship, and network with other teams and experts," says Hennemuth. 

Information on the competition, UNIKAT start-up advice and examples of ideas from recent years: www.unikat-kassel.de

Contact:
Sandra Wilhelm
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer
Tel.: 0561 / 804 7252
E-mail: ideenwettbewerb[at]uni-kassel[dot]de