Launch of Twelfth IQ Prize for Innovation in Central Germany

The IQ prize for Innovation in Central Germany will be granted to SME innovation projects coming from the Central German clusters Automotive, Life Sciences, Chemistry/Synthetic Material/Energy/Environment/Solar Industry and Information Technology. Applications can be submitted until the 14^th of March. The prize has a long and successful history supporting high-level innovation of SMEs in Central Germany.

In 2016 it will be granted for the twelfth time. The stakeholders of the Regional Alliance within the Innovation Alliance Project take on an important role as they donate an additional regional innovation price supporting scientific knowledge transfer of innovation in the Halle/Saale Region. In total, 70,000 Euro will be granted to innovation projects.

“The IQ prize provides an attractive platform to support innovative products and services developed by central German SMEs. At the same time, the prize can be regarded as best practice for privately financed innovation support”, says Jörn-Heinrich Tobaben, CEO of the Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland Management GmbH.

As an established instrument for innovation support, the price not only addresses members of the aforementioned clusters but also involves intermediaries such as business incubators, accelerator programmes as well co-working spaces and alike players being closely related to the start-up scene of Central Germany.

Examples of successful winners of the past years are:

2015: boraident GmbH

2014: BioSolutions Halle GmbH
2013: Ontochem GmbH 

2012: Nanoptics Innovation GmbH

2011: boraident GmbH

More information on the prize can be received under the following link: www.iq-mitteldeutschland.de