BISC-E Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe

Registration for the BISC-E 2025 is open! Apply until 15 December 2024

Join the Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge – Europe!

Are you ready to develop an innovative bio-based solution to help overcome hurdles standing in the way of a climate-neutral Europe? The Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge – Europe (BISC-E) invites students to design solutions in a multidisciplinary team and compete at national and international levels. Are you up to the challenge?

The German Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge (BISC-E) is organised by the University of Hohenheim as the national contact point. It is open for all Bachelor and Master students enrolled in a German university or university of applied sciences.

In a constantly evolving bioeconomy, we are looking for an innovative team to develop a new bio-based product or process to represent Germany in the challenge.

National Coordinators: Juliane Stoye and Valentin Schlecht
Department of Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy

Email: bisc-e@uni-hohenheim.de, Phone: 0711 459 22852

What is the BISC-E

The BISC-E is a Europe-wide competition for Bachelor and Master students recognising excellence in the emerging bio-based sector. BISC-E seeks to raise awareness and involve students in the transition towards a bio-based economy. The Bio-based Industry Consortium (BIC) acts as a contact point for the BISC-E coordination and organises the European finals where the top student teams will compete against each other.

Choosing the winner team

All student teams will present their ideas to a jury from industry and science. The teams will have to support their presentation with evidence of sustainability, technical feasability and economic viability of the developed process or product. The jury will assess all applications and invite the preselected best teams to present their ideas in a 15 minutes live presentation. The winning team will receive personal coaching and will move on to compete in the EU finals in autumn 2025.

Registration

Team name*

Full name team coordinator*

Email address team coordinator*

University/University of Applied Sciences*

Description of your bio-based idea (200 words)*

How did you hear about the BISC-E?

Data protection declaration *

I hereby agree to the processing of my data. All personal data will only be used for the BISC-E and only be shared with the organising organisations.

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Timeline

15 December 2024	Registration deadline
Beginning of January 2025	Kick-off with all participants
31 May 2024	Submission deadline for video presentations and supporting documents
Beginning of June 2025	Jury chooses best teams for German final
27 June	German final at University of Hohenheim
5 September 2025	First round of European final
26 September 2025	Final round of European final

Regulations

Please read all the provided rules and regulations carefully.

Flyer

Next steps

If you would like to participate, please apply and register your team and idea via the online registration form above.
You can add team members later on and you idea can also be worked on during the competition.
You will receive an email from us shortly after registration where we will ask the other names of the team members.
You will be invited to the online kick-off meeting in January 2025, where we will give you more information about the course of the challenge.
You will have to find a supervisor at your university who will advise and guide you during the challenge.
Until 31 May 2025 you'll have time to design a viable bio-based product or process and send us your idea as a max. 10 minute video presentation.
The jury will decide on the best three teams who will be invited to the German final.
On 27 June 2025 the German final will take place at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart and the jury will choose the winner.
We'll try our best to reimburse travel costs for students that are travelling to Stuttgart for the German final.
The winning team will receive coaching and training from BIC before participating in the European final in autumn 2025.

Template supporting documents

Please download this template and use it for submitting your supporting documents.

Participation

Teams of 3 to 6 students are welcome to join the competition.
We highly advise interdisciplinary teams due to the multidisciplinary character of the challenge.
Mixed teams with students from both universities of applied sciences and universities or different institutions are encouraged.
All team members have to be enrolled in a German university or university of applied sciences.
Teams must find a supervisor e.g. a PhD student, a post-doc or a professor that will guide and support them throughout the challenge.
Students and supervisors can only be part of one team.
The developed innovative process or product will be judged on technical, sustainable and economic criteria.
Each team must appoint a team coordinator who is the person who applies and will be the contact point for further communication between organiser and team members.