The participation
The criteria for awarding the Förderpreis award are clearly defined. The focus is on the viable business concept, the degree of innovation of the business idea, the personal commitment of the founder and, new this year, the sustainability (social, ecological, economic) of the start-up idea. Female founders and entrepreneurs who have been self-employed for at least three years are eligible to participate.
In the first application phase, all interested women had to complete a standardized application form and submit it by July 31, 2021. Three business ideas will be awarded. The first prize is worth 50,000 euros, the second prize 10,000 euros and the third prize 5,000 euros.
From the large number of entries, five female applicants will be given the opportunity to present themselves and the start-up idea in person to the jury. A place for this final round is awarded by public voting.
The Jury
The Förderpreis award is under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schipanski. The prize winners are selected by a top-class jury chaired by Prof. Dr. Rolf Eggert.
The other jury members are: Dr. Bernd C. Janssen, Norbert Leopoldseder, Wilfried Peters, Dr. Anita Plantikow, Manuela Rasthofer, and Laura Bücheler (winner of the Darboven IDEE Förderpreis Award 2019).
The road to the final - 2021
In several meetings, the jury reviewed the concepts submitted by the founders and requested additional documents. Additional business plans, profit-and-loss statements, excerpts from the commercial register, lists of shareholders, as well as patents gave the jury a comprehensive picture of the business concepts.
The five finalists or finalist duos for this year's Darboven IDEE-Förderpreis award beat a total of 144 applicants with their ideas. Four of the five female founders or founding duos directly secured a ticket to the final round: Dr. Anne Lamp and Johanna Baare from Hamburg with traceless materials GmbH; Dr. Katrin Schuhen from Karlsruhe with Wasser 3.0 gGmbH; Dr. Beatrix Förster from Alpenrod with Doderm GmbH; and Dr. Christina Linke and Patricia Griem from Berlin with Clean Ocean Coatings GmbH. In addition, the jury selected nine promising candidates for the public vote. And the public decided: Alexandra Herget and Franziska Altenrath from TUTAKA GmbH in Hamburg were also allowed to enter the final. On November 25, 2021, the three most innovative and sustainable start-up concepts were honored..