10 years of Hessen Ideen: Anniversary and award ceremony in Marburg

The Hessian funding initiative Hessen Ideen celebrated its tenth anniversary with a large anniversary celebration in the Lokschuppen Marburg. The highlight of the evening was the award ceremony for the 10th Hessen Ideen competition, at which the best start-up ideas from Hessen's universities were honored.

For 10 years, Hessen Ideen has shown that spin-offs from universities are not a one-off momentum, but mark the beginning of sustainable paths.

Annika Strauß, Project Manager Hessen Ideen

13 finalist teams from 10 universities presented their innovative concepts to the audience and jury - from sustainable technologies and digital health solutions to innovative approaches to education and mobility. The award ceremony was hosted by the Hessian Minister of Science and Research, Art and Culture, Timon Gremmels.

A decade full of ideas and start-ups

Hessen Ideen has been supporting and promoting start-ups from Hessian universities since 2015. To mark the anniversary, representatives from science, politics and the start-up ecosystem took part in a panel discussion on the role of universities as start-up incubators and discussed the future of start-up support in the state.

The day's program also offered plenty of inspiration:

• Talks on topics such as female entrepreneurship, investor relations and AI innovations from Hessen provided practical insights and inspiration.
• Successful alumni from previous years and current finalists presented themselves at the startup fair.
• In the evening, the big networking party followed, bringing the day to a close with music and networking.

Diversity of the final teams

The 13 finalists included projects such as autonomIQ (TU Darmstadt, AI-based test automation), Gilly's Kitchen (JLU Giessen, healthy child nutrition), MATERIALiST (JLU Giessen, battery technologies), MindShift (University of Marburg, mental health care), Moaky (EBS, care solutions) and Nixi AI (Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, documentation assistance for doctors). They exemplify the innovative strength and range of Hessian universities.

The audience award went to Hairconomy, while the special prize for particularly innovative ideas was awarded to the start-up BERT. First place went to the local heroes from MindShift. The prize is endowed with €10,000.

Hessen Ideen as a platform for founders

Hessen Ideen is an initiative of the state of Hesse, universities and regional companies. With formats such as the Hessen Ideen competition, the Hessen Ideen scholarship and the university network, it offers its own ecosystem for entrepreneurial thinking and action at universities. Since 2015, hundreds of start-up ideas have been supported that have attracted a great deal of attention.

10 years of Hessen Ideen was an inspiring event full of exciting insights and valuable reviews. The new Female Founder Scholarship was also an important step towards encouraging more female founders.

Dr. Natalia Gorynia-Pfeffer, Project Manager at RKW Competence Center

Strong funding culture with room for improvement in terms of visibility

With the anniversary edition of the competition, Hessen Ideen has impressively demonstrated how strongly the start-up culture at Hessen's universities has developed over the past ten years and that the next generation of innovative start-ups is already in the starting blocks.

Despite the impressive successes and professional start-up support at Hessen's universities, one central challenge remains: the transfer from the academic world to the wider media public and the real economy. Many teams develop innovative ideas and convincing business models, but the step out of the university environment into the visibility of the market is not always successful. This shows that the start-up culture at universities has not yet fully emerged from the proverbial ivory tower. In order to sustainably develop the potential of young start-ups, stronger bridges are needed between science, business and the media.