For the #makersoftomorrow

The TU Ideas Competition offers members of the TU Darmstadt the opportunity to present and promote their own innovative product or business ideas and research results with commercial exploitation potential. In a protected environment, your idea will be tested for its marketing and innovation potential by experts from business and research. After a multi-stage selection process, the best ideas are awarded with prizes up to 3.000€ and presented to representatives from business and politics in an appropriate event setting.

Application period 2022 has started

Find out at the TU Ideas Competition whether your innovative idea or your achieved research result is viable or could even become a breakthrough. Register yourself or your team without any risks, receive qualified feedback from our expert jury and, with a bit of luck, win prize money of up to € 3,000. Let us support you in your breakthrough, fulfill your dream of your own start-up or make your research available to the economy

Fill out the idea outline (opens in new tab) and upload it in the participation form below. Please make sure that the file does not exceed the size of 5MB.

Further Dates:

  • Ideas can still be submitted until 08.07.2022.
  • By 15.08.2022 you will find out whether your idea has made it into the Top 20.
  • By 20.09.2022 you will find out whether your idea has made it into the Top 5.
  • The prize ceremony will take place on 20.10.2022 at the Start-up & Innovation Day 2022 at darmstadtium.
  • Participation is possible as an individual or as a team.
  • Students, scientists, graduates and employees of the TU Darmstadt are eligible to participate.
  • When participating as a team, it is sufficient that one team member fulfills this condition and is indicated as the contact person. The other team members don't have to be students or members of the TU Darmstadt.
  • The Participation is confidential, i.e. the jury members sign a non-disclosure agreement. The personal data of the participants will neither be passed on to unauthorized third parties nor used internally by the organizer.
  • You can submit your idea in English or German.
  • The formal foundation should not yet have taken place at the time of submission.
  • The idea must have been developed independently by the participants and should not infringe the rights of third parties.
  • Several idea proposals may be submitted per participant or team. A maximum of one proposal per participant or team can be awarded a prize.
  • Winners of previous TU Idea Competitions should not apply again with the same idea.
  • Participants agree to present their idea at the final event and to participate in public relations.
  • Participation in the competition implies agreement with the conditions of participation stated here.
  • The legal process is excluded (refers only to claim for the prize money. Your ideas are safe with us and the copyright and the claim to your invention or idea remains with you).

The organizer and an external jury of experts will evaluate the submitted ideas based on the following criteria:

  • Degree of innovation
  • Economic potential
  • Feasibility
  • Customer benefit
  • Unique selling proposition
  • Market opportunities

They will select the finalists in the two categories. The decision on the winners will then be made after the finalists have presented their ideas to the jury of experts.

Overview: Award winners of the last years (atm only in German)

Download idea template

Before you enter your data into the entry form, you should download the idea template, fill it out and save it. You need the PDF document for the entry form! Please make sure that the file does not exceed the size of 5MB.

Download (opens in new tab)

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TU ideas competition 2021

The Sponsors 2021

  Name Working area(s) Contact
Simone Lühl
Mo - Thurs 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Innovation Manager
+49 6151 16-57058
S4|25 324