It was a close decision, but ultimately Ruben Hammele, Samira Huber and Jerom Schult convinced the jury of the Founders’ Prize with their app “EcoCheck”. Sparkasse in Lübeck. The EcoCheck team from the University of Lübeck is developing an automated life cycle analysis that gives companies the opportunity to calculate emissions at product level. With the insights gained from this, companies can make their products more sustainable. In addition, the automation of the emissions calculation makes it possible to estimate the emissions for around 80 percent of the products in food retail. This data should be made available to consumers in the EcoCheck app and thus help them make more sustainable purchasing decisions.
12 dedicated teams
For the start-up award, scientific teams were asked to submit their innovative concepts for potential or already implemented start-up projects. An eight-person jury consisting of members of the Sparkasse zu Lübeck, the universities, the Lübeck Chamber of Industry and Commercethe Lübeck Technical Center Hanse Innovation Campus GmbH, the economic development agency and a member of the winning team of the last start-up award evaluated the submitted ideas. 12 teams submitted concepts, and the following projects were nominated (in alphabetical order):
“EcoCheck”: an app that makes it easier to make sustainable decisions when shopping
“Juno Nutrition”: a digital advice platform for nutritional questions while trying to have children, during pregnancy and breastfeeding
“Metadine”: a foodtech startup for personalized nutrition solutions
“Splitbot”: a software that is intended to automate administrative processes in companies
“StickTo”: an app that briefly and clearly presents the entire German job profile on job cards
“Valmol”: wants to revolutionize the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases
High-profile guests from science, business, politics and public life took part in the ceremony on November 29, 2023 in the Audimax of the University of Lübeck and the Lübeck University of Technology. The university’s press spokesperson, Vivian Upmann, hosted the event.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack congratulated the winning team and all competition participants. They are role models for young people who have good ideas,” said the minister. “We experienced exciting ideas, coherent concepts and, above all, a lot of courage at the Founder’s Prize. We need creative people who dare to start a company. Start-ups increase the innovative power of our economy. We all benefit from this.” Sütterlin-Waack thanked the University of Lübeck and the Lübeck University of Technology, especially the university professors, for supporting the founders so committedly. The minister also thanked the initiators of the competition for their support. “With the generous funding of the Founder’s Prize, Sparkasse zu Lübeck is providing a further incentive for people to become self-employed.
The board member of Sparkasse zu Lübeck AG, Oke Heuer, confirms: The Sparkasse zu Lübeck is firmly anchored in Lübeck and has been very successfully taking responsibility for its actions, the future of Lübeck and the people who live in this region for more than 200 years. The awarding and awarding of our Founder’s Prize fits in with this. This prize, worth 10,000 euros, is being awarded for the eighth time. With our start-up award, we specifically support innovative ideas from the research and science environment as well as the connection and linking of these ideas with start-up initiatives and entrepreneurship in Lübeck as a science and business location. Because just gaining knowledge through research is not enough. In view of the challenges of the time, it is at least as important to implement them successfully and make them usable.
The Vice President for Research and International Affairs at TH Lübeck, Prof. Dr. Karen Cabos, says: As a member of the jury, I was thrilled by the commitment of all teams. They investigate important social issues such as sustainability or healthy nutrition and provide solutions that are reflected in the sophisticated business concepts.
The President of the University of Lübeck, Gabriele Gillessen-Kaesbach, adds: The awarding of the Founder’s Prize is a very special event because it makes it clear which bright minds with an entrepreneurial spirit study and work on our campus. They all want to make a contribution to the transfer to science and society – I would like to expressly congratulate all applicants on this. You can be sure of our support and let me tell you: start-ups are welcome at the University of Lübeck.
About the Sparkasse zu Lübeck Founder’s Prize
The “Sparkasse zu Lübeck Founder’s Prize”, donated by Sparkasse zu Lübeck AG, awards a total of 10,000 euros to attractive start-up concepts from the Lübeck University of Technology, the University of Lübeck and the UKSH Campus Lübeck. It is important to the Sparkasse to support young academics with their groundbreaking ideas and to promote the entrepreneurial thinking and actions of the founders. The Sparkasse has therefore been sponsoring the “Sparkasse zu Lübeck Founder’s Prize” since 2008. For the eighth time, not only attractive start-up concepts from the University of Lübeck and the UKSH Campus Lübeck, but also from the Lübeck University of Technology are being honored.
This year the jury consisted of the following people: Prof. Dr. Stefan Fischer (University of Lübeck), Prof. Dr. Karen Cabos (Lübeck University of Technology), Bastian Alexander Spendler (Sparkasse zu Lübeck), Dr. Sabine Hackenjos (IHK Lübeck), Dr. Frank Schröder-Oeynhausen (Lübeck Technical Center), Anna Lena Paape (Hanse Innovation Campus GmbH), Dario Arndt (Lübeck economic development), Till Böhme (MobOx GbR).