The Hessen Ideen Scholarship is a six-month scholarship program for university members and graduates in the early stages of developing an innovative, knowledge-driven business idea. Under the scholarship program, awardees receive support in transforming their initial idea into a valid business concept.
Timon Gremmels, the Hessian Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts, is the patron of the event: "Congratulations to the teams on their successful application to the Hessen Ideen Scholarship; I wish you courage and perseverance on your entrepreneurial journey. These projects demonstrate that there is enormous potential for start-ups at universities in Hesse – we must take advantage of this to support the transformation of our industrial society and create sustainable jobs. Hessen Ideen is an important partner on this path."
Hessen Ideen Scholarship Program
The Hessen Ideen Scholarship offers two-sided support, providing recipients with both a grant and with an acceleration program for their start-up idea. The monthly grant of up to €2,500 per scholarship holder is intended to give the start-up teams the freedom to focus on developing their idea. They also receive targeted support with developing their business idea through the Idea Accelerator, a comprehensive coaching and workshop program. The teams are also supervised onsite by the universities' start-up counselors. An interdisciplinary exchange between scholarship holders and networking with successful founders and players in Hesse's start-up scene are also at the core of the scholarship.
During the six-month scholarship (July 1 to December 31), participants can make substantial progress in developing their start-up concept, establish valuable contacts and prepare to launch their business.
Enjoywithsoy, a start-up team from Geisenheim made up of Philip Kaapke, Christian Sommer and Nino Griebel, was awarded one of the scholarship places. Enjoywithsoy produces delicious, sustainable and vegan soy-based products. As a future-oriented business, Enjoywithsoy will use zero-waste manufacturing processes for their products, transforming soy industry remnants that would otherwise be wasted into tasty, balanced products. Their first product is a vegan drinking yogurt made from soy whey, large quantities of which is generated during tofu production.
The various start-up teams from Hessian universities that have been awarded a scholarship can be seen here: Teilnehmende Ideen/Alumni Hessen Ideen (hessen-ideen.de)
Next Funding Round
The next funding round starts on January 1, 2025, with an application deadline of September 25, 2024. Interested parties can find out more by attending the online information events organized by Hessen Ideen or by contacting the start-up advisory services at their university directly. The contact persons at the universities can be found here: hessen-ideen.de/hochschulen
The State of Hesse Supports the Hessen Ideen Initiative
Hessen Ideen is an initiative of the state of Hesse, Hessian universities and Hessian companies. The Hessen Ideen Scholarship, Hessen Ideen Competition, Hessen Ideen Crowdfunding, and the Hessen Ideen University Network are aimed at discovering and promoting entrepreneurial ideas at the universities.
The initiative is coordinated by UniKasselTransfer at the University of Kassel in cooperation with HIGHEST at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The state of Hesse is funding the Hessen Ideen initiative with €5.4 million until 2025 as part of the Hessian Higher Education Pact. Further information is available at www.hessen-ideen.de.
