NEULAND – THE INNOVATION CONTEST

The NEULAND innovation contest calls on KIT scientific employees and PhD students to present their clever ideas and innovative projects generated in the course of research. In addition to the appreciation of daily work, the format is intended to provide an incentive to reflect on one's own work with regard to innovative aspects, to share it with other interested parties, and to initiate new cooperations with industry. In addition to being awarded an attractive cash prize, the best ideas will also be accompanied by our innovation managers at KIT in the follow-up in order to find industrial partners and initiate projects.

The application round for the Innovation Contest NEULAND 2025 has come to an end. The application for the Innovation Contest 2026 is expected to start in November 2025.

INNOVATION AWARD

KIT is looking for ideas with the aim of bringing the best technologies and processes to the market as products or product components. All project outlines that aim at product-oriented transfer of an idea or a technology into the economy will be considered.

TECHNLOGY TRANSFER AWARD CATEGORY

We are looking for cooperation projects in which a technology from the KIT is further developed into an experimental setup or prototype together with one or more industrial partners. We have summarized more detailed information on this category in a FAQ.

Competition criteria

IDEA AWARD: The idea is based on KIT's know-how and you are looking for industrial partners for implementation in industry and society.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AWARD: The cooperation is publicly funded or jointly financed by industry and KIT. The cooperation has started between 01.01.2024 and 31.12.2024 and already has a contractual basis. The industrial partner agrees to participate in the contest.

Application period

The application round for the Innovation Contest NEULAND 2025 has come to an end. The application for the Innovation Contest 2026 is expected to start in November 2025.

Award ceremony

The winners are selected by an independent jury of industry representatives. The jury meeting takes place in May 2025, the award ceremony at the Wissenswoche NEULAND between July 1st and July 5th 2025. All nominees will be provided with further information following the jury meeting.