4 start-up ideas from the University of Kassel are supported with Hessen Idea Scholarships

A total of 14 teams from Hessian universities will receive this six-month fellowship program for university staff and graduates with an affinity for entrepreneurship who are in the early stages of developing an innovative, knowledge-based, entrepreneurial business idea. During the program, they are supported in the transition from initial idea to a validated business concept. Hessen's Minister for Science and the Arts, Angela Dorn, has assumed patronage: "Fresh ideas, innovative products, services and business models not only modernize the economy; above all, they offer solutions to the challenges of our time. With Hessen Ideen, we want to motivate potential founders from universities to take the path to self-employment and support them in the transition from an entrepreneurial idea to a convincing business concept. In this way, clever and creative minds can develop their full potential - for a stable society that is capable of change and thus also fit for the future. I congratulate the teams on their successful application for the Hessen Ideas Scholarship and wish them courage and perseverance on their entrepreneurial journey," she said.

Program of the Hessen Ideas Scholarship

Support through the scholarship consists of two elements, financial support and an accompanying accelerator program. The monetary support of up to 2,000 euros per scholarship holder is intended to give the founding teams the freedom to focus entirely on developing their idea. At the same time, the scholarship holders are supported in developing their business idea with the "Ideen Akzelerator" - an overarching coaching and workshop program. The start-up coaches at the universities also provide their teams with intensive on-site advice. A central element of the scholarship is the exchange  as well as networking with successful founders and players in the Hessian startup ecosystem.
During the funding period of six months, the participants can intensively advance their startup idea, establish valuable contacts and prepare to start a business.
From the University of Kassel, the following startup teams will receive funding:

lerner.ai
Lerner.ai is an e-learning platform that promotes a pedagogically valuable learning experience by adapting queries on learning units to the respective learning type and level of knowledge or by designing interaction options according to the need for motivation. Thus, lerner.ai clearly goes beyond typical gamification aspects. The creation, preparation and selection of learning and feedback questions is automated and is constantly improved through interaction with the users.

maevsi
Maevsi is the new event platform that enables users to discover relevant and interesting events. Users can see which events friends are participating in, so they don't lose touch. Organizers can use maevsi to make their events visible in a cost-effective and precise way.

EntSpinnerei
The "EntSpinnerei" is intended to support farms and social institutions in implementing their socio-ecological goals. The consulting service is aimed at farms that want to establish their individual project from the combination of social work and agriculture. Interdisciplinary consulting for the interdisciplinary field of social farming can develop inclusive and forward-looking farm concepts for agriculture and society.

Growth cover
Storms, drought and bark beetles have caused German spruce stands to disappear in recent years, leaving huge areas of bare land. Forestry companies are now faced with the task of reforesting these bare areas in order to combat the climatic and economic consequences of forest dieback. The novel growth cover supports the forest throughout the reforestation process and ensures the success of future forest generations.

The nextfunding round
The next funding round will start on July 01, 2023. The application deadline is March 31, 2023. Interested parties can find out more at online info sessions hosted by Hessen Ideen or contact the start-up advisors at their university directly. The contact persons at the universities can be found here: hessen-ideen.de/hochschulen

The state of Hessen supports the Hessen Ideen initiative
Hessen Ideen is an initiative of the state of Hessen, Hessen's universities and Hessen's companies. The pillars Hessen Ideen Stipendium, Hessen Ideen Wettbewerb, Hessen Ideen Crowdfunding and the Hessen Ideen Hochschulnetzwerk are designed to discover and promote entrepreneurial ideas at universities.

The initiative is coordinated by UniKasselTransfer at the University of Kassel in cooperation with HIGHEST from the Technical University of Darmstadt.
The state of Hesse is supporting the Hessen Ideen initiative with 5.4 million euros until 2025 as part of the Hessian Higher Education Pact. Further information is available at www.hessen-ideen.de

Press contact:

Ann-Sophie Bleise-Hankel                                                                      
                                                   
UniKasselTransfer / Project Hessen Ideas                          
komm. Project manager                                               
bleise[at]uni-kassel[dot]de                                               
Tel.: +49 561 804 7543