The Innovation Award has a long-standing tradition at Technopol Wiener Neustadt. By honoring outstanding projects, the Wiener Neustadt research community is motivated to look into the economic usability of their innovative developments and research results. Six winning projects were honored yesterday by ecoplus Prokurist Claus Zeppelzauer, accent Managing Director Michael Moll, Thilo Schmalz, Technology Transfer Manager tecnet equity, and FHWN Managing Director Armin Mahr. The topics range from the recycling of coffee grounds and training models for dental surgery to food made from CO2 and green electricity.

Every year, innovative people from the HTL and FH Wiener Neustadt, from the R&D facilities based at the TFZ Wiener Neustadt and spin-off projects at companies based at the Technopol Wiener Neustadt are invited to take part in the Innovation Award. The award is organized by tecnet, accent, ecoplus and the FH Wiener Neustadt. With currently 17 submissions, the Innovation Award is an important source of inspiration for thinking about the commercial use of research results.

Research hotspot

ecoplus authorized signatory Claus Zeppelzauer emphasizes the importance of the technopole locations: “At the Technopol Wiener Neustadt and our three other technopole locations in Lower Austria, the interplay between research, education, business and business start-ups works perfectly. With the Innovation Award, we are providing important impetus to trigger innovations and form a basis for new high-tech companies. Our ecoplus team supports and networks all relevant players and is involved in the organization. Together with the Technopol Wiener Neustadt and the Mechatronics Cluster, we are active as category sponsors.”

tecnet is the first point of contact for research institutions that drive innovation and supports aspiring scientists from the development of an innovative idea through to market entry. Thilo Schmalz, Technology Transfer Manager at tecnet equity, emphasizes: “It is important to us that young scientists develop an understanding of the commercial exploitation of research results at an early stage. That's why we place particular emphasis on the variety of commercialization options in our special 'research-to-value next' (r2vnext) check-ups, workshops and coaching sessions.” Michael Moll, Managing Director of accent Incubator, adds: “As the leading high-tech incubator in Lower Austria, we firmly believe that the identification of potential start-up ideas cannot begin early enough. We are therefore very pleased about the successful establishment of the Innovation Award.”

“As a university of applied sciences, FHWN has been a source of innovation for 30 years now. Our employees, students and graduates have been taking part in the award for many years and have already won many prizes. This year, we will be honoring the great commitment from the university with two (special) prizes and are very proud of all those who submitted entries. Our FHWN StartUp Center supports many teams on their way to founding a company,” says Armin Mahr, Managing Director of FH Wiener Neustadt.

The winning projects

The Innovation Award is presented by a jury of experts in four categories, with a further two submissions being recognized by the Wiener Neustadt University of Applied Sciences. The Innovation Award is endowed with € 1,500 per category. The prizes were donated by ecoplus. Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH, tecnet equity NÖ Technologiebeteiligungs-Invest GmbH, accent Inkubator GmbH and the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt GmbH.

Category: Start-up - innovative business ideas, Sponsor: accent

+ With 2D to sustainability: Producing green graphene nanosheets as multipurpose solution (production of graphene nanosheets for use in various industries)

+ Markus Ostermann and Pierluigi Bilotto - CEST GmbH

Category: Medicine, Medical Technology, Innovations in Healthcare and Life Sciences Sponsor: tecnet

+ Implantology training model for augmentative dental surgery (3D-printed head models based on real data are used as base supports for interchangeable upper and lower jaw modules and as training models for surgical procedures)

+ Stefan Koschitz, Christoph Kment, Richard Kolonics, Herbert Weißenböck, Mario Wieser - ACMIT

Category: Mechatronics, Robotics, Aerospace, Sponsor: ecoplus - Mechatronics Cluster

+ PeerLink: Independent High-Bandwidth Communication System for Emergency Response (system for establishing high-performance data transmission within a few minutes in disaster areas, remote operational areas, when digital infrastructure is not available or has been destroyed)

+ Konstantin Lindorfer, Sebastian Kawicher, Bernhard Klauninger - HTL Wiener Neustadt

Category: Innovations in the fields of materials, surface technologies, sensor technology, circular economy and energy Sponsor: ecoplus - Technopol Wiener Neustadt

+ From Waste to Value: Spent Coffee Grounds Oil (utilization of coffee grounds to produce high-quality oils and lubricants for industry)

+ Jessica Pichler, Marcella Frauscher - AC2T research GmbH

Category: FHWN Innovation Award 2024

+ Food from CO2 and green electricity - The Unctix process (technology for the production of food from existing CO2 and green - i.e. sustainably produced - electricity)

+ Jan Dolinsek - FHWN

Category: FHWN Anniversary Award 2024 - 30 years of FHWN

+ Solid resin 3D printing (development of a 3D printing system for the production of complex components made of UV resin)

+ Konstantin Marlovits - FHWN