"Saxony is home to many creative and clever minds that have the courage to be entrepreneurs. The futureSax ideas competition aims to make these people and their ideas visible. Our industry diversity and the outstanding research hub create the ideal conditions for knowledge-based start-ups and new business models,” explained Martin Dulig, Saxon State Minister for Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport, at the beginning of the year when launching the 2018 ideas competition.

Six months later, more than a hundred innovative ideas and concepts have been submitted, leaving the jury with the difficult task of choosing the most innovative ideas. On 25^th June, the most convincing business ideas and foundation concepts were presented, and afterwards honoured by Dr. Hartmut Mangold, State Secretary at the Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport.

The winner of the competition is wisefood GmbH from Langenbernsdorf in the Zwickau district. With eatapple, the first fruit-based edible straw, the founding team offers a sustainable alternative to plastic straws. wisefood GmbH convinced the jury in the categories novelty, feasibility and commercial potential, and was awarded €15,000 for first place.

Infrasolid GmbH, a spin-off of TU Dresden attained second position, and was awarded €10,000 for its energy-efficient micro light sources. The miniaturised infrared emitters are able to generate information about each substance by analysing the unique infrared fingerprint of materials and displaying it on suitable devices.

Third places goes to the founders of denovoMatrix, another spin-off of TU Dresden. The team was awarded €5,000 for a novel biomaterial coating for plastic material in the cell culture that allows human stem cells to be propagated better than with conventional methods. At the same time, they retain their properties as stem cells without differentiating - an essential prerequisite for their future use in stem cell therapies.

Within the scope of the IP transfer, both TU spin-offs are supervised by the employees of the TU Dresden Transfer Office.

futureSax provides founders and companies from Saxony with growth impulses, networks innovators across industries and supports the transfer between science and industry.

                                                                                  ewri Transfer Office