Two start-up projects at the University of Kassel receive Hesse Idea Grants

Science Minister Boris Rhein said: "I warmly congratulate the scholarship holders and wish them every success on their way. The great response to the 'Hessen Ideen Stipendium' shows the potential for start-up ideas at Hessen's universities. Hessen's universities are an almost inexhaustible pool of creative and committed people with unconventional and innovative ideas. With the scholarship program, we want to motivate them to take the step into self-employment and support them on their way from an entrepreneurial idea to a convincing business concept. The future success of Hessen as a center of innovation also depends on how we use entrepreneurial ideas generated at universities."

The Hessen Ideas Scholarship was announced for the second time and is aimed at start-up ideas from Hessen university members that are in the early stages of idea development or business development. The scholarship provides support for a period of six months with monthly funding of 2,000 euros per person. The second funding round begins on January 1, 2019 and ends on July 31, 2019. 15 start-up projects were selected for funding by an expert committee from a total of 35 applications. In addition to the financial grant, the scholarship holders also receive support in terms of content during the scholarship period. In addition to a coach at the respective university and program support from the Hessen Ideen organization team, the founding teams attend various workshops and get to know experienced founders and business partners.

This year's funded teams include start-up ideas from a wide variety of fields. In addition to technical start-up ideas such as app developments, a domestic emergency call automation process or virtual reality programs to improve the training of athletes, the portfolio of Hessen Ideen scholarship holders also includes social enterprise ideas as well as product developments. "The Hessen Ideen Stipendium enables the teams from the various Hessian universities to think outside the box with their respective thematic focuses and to exchange ideas with founders from very different industries. For the scholarship holders, learning from each other in particular is an enormous benefit," says Jörg Froharth, head of start-up consulting at the University of Kassel and project coordinator of Hessen Ideen.

Two teams of founders from the University of Kassel are being supported. The two founders of the "Veli" project want to enable older people to lead independent lives for longer. Their software should be able to recognize dangerous situations from the consumption data of a household (water, electricity, gas) and inform an emergency call service. The three founders of the "Kasseler Bunkerpilz" project want to establish sustainable, local and urban food production. According to their plans, edible mushrooms will be produced directly on site in unused spaces beneath the city - and in accordance with the "cradle-to-cradle" principle on substrates that are normally disposed of as waste (e.g. coffee grounds).

The Hessen Ideas Fellowship is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts under the patronage of Minister Boris Rhein. The program is coordinated and implemented by the University of Kassel in cooperation with the Technical University of Darmstadt. The scholarship program runs until December 31, 2020 and offers support for a total of around 50 start-up projects and over 120 prospective university founders. A maximum of three people per founding team can be supported. The founding of a corporation must not yet have taken place. Applications for the next program run are open until March 31, 2019, with scholarships starting on July 1, 2019. In addition to the Hessen Ideas Scholarship, a statewide ideas competition has been running for three years under the "Hessen Ideen" label, in which the best startup ideas from all Hessen universities can participate.
 

Contact for interested university members:

Gabriele Hennemuth
E-mail: hennemuth[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Contact for the press:
Annika Wallbach
Tel.: 0561 95379 605
E-mail: info[at]hessen-ideen[dot]de
www.hessen-ideen.de