On 1 April, 26 participants from Germany and Belgium came together in Duesseldorf for the first meeting of the 2019 G-BiB. Four teams from Germany and three teams from Belgium will take the chance to learn about business plans, pitching and communication and will compete to win the final award in September 2019.
In 2019 teams from Germany and Belgium will be attending the competition. The German contribution will be organised by Cluster Industrial Biotechnology (CLIB) and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Belgium contribution will be organised by Flanders Biobased Valley and Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant and is funded by the Interreg North-West Europe Project BioBase4SME.
On 1 April, 20 students, PhD students and mentors from five out of the seven registered teams met in Duesseldorf to get to know each other and to start into the G-BiB. After introductions of the coordinators Katrin Kriebs and Tanja Meyer (in picture below) about the funding projects, the teams had the chance to ask questions about the competition and the next steps. Thereafter all teams pitched their idea for the first time within the competition and all participants had the chance to enjoy the wide portfolio of ideas and solutions the teams will bring into the competition in 2019 To round off the event, Nadja Henke from Bicomer – the German finalist of the G-BiB 2017 – enriched the kick-off with some insights into her experiences in starting up a company and participating in the G-BiB. The event was closed by a talk by Pelin Yilmaz from b.experts, a German biotech start-up consultant which will also mentor the teams during the German masterclass, giving valuable tips to consider when developing a business idea.
The teams are now preparing for the masterclass in Belgium and Germany, where they will start writing their business plans and improve their pitching competences. In July 2019 the national semi-finals will announce two finalist teams per country to participate in the international finals in September.
The BIG-Cluster Initiative
The BIG-Cluster Initiative – formed by ten clusters and networks from the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium) and North-Rhine Westphalia (Germany) – aims at fostering the bioeconomy in the project region.
CROSSBEE is promoting sustainable economy thinking and entrepreneurship among students and young professionals and thus educating the bioeconomy experts of tomorrow. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
More information can be found on https://www.bigc-initiative.eu/.
