EIT Manufacturing awards the Best Innovation Award at the JA Marketplace Vienna

Students from all over Europe presented their companies and solutions at the Junior Achievement Marketplace 2024.

As the global landscape evolves and embraces innovation, a new generation of young entrepreneurs is rising to the occasion, introducing novel ideas and solutions to the forefront. In an effort to foster this entrepreneurial spirit and provide a platform for budding innovators, EIT Manufacturing proudly supported the JA Marketplace Vienna, an international trade fair for student companies taking part in the Junior Achievement (JA) Company Programme across Europe, by sponsoring the Best Innovation Award.

This year’s JA Marketplace Vienna saw 36 exhibiting teams from Austria and all over Europe who took up the challenge and presented their companies, business ideas and products to the public. Aside from the 21 teams from Austria, 15 teams joined the event from seven European countries, including Denmark, Cyprus, Italy, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Switzerland and Ukraine. The student teams practised presenting and selling their products or services under real market circumstances. Their resourceful ideas ranged from art pieces and lamps made from recycled glass bottles to plantable gift tags and anti-stress metal puzzles.

And the Award for Best Innovation by EIT Manufacturing goes to… 99Robotics!

For the second year in a row, EIT Manufacturing, a knowledge and innovation community supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, sponsored the Best Innovation Award, rewarding the business idea with the best value proposition, business concept and future potential.

The 99Robotics team won the Best Innovation Award for their KlimaRobot, the agricultural robot designed to work autonomously in swarms in established maize crops. Combining biology, tech, AI, and agricultural engineering, 99Robotics will reduce CO2 emissions and leeching of nitrate into the waterbody as well as reduce topsoil degradation.

As a proud representative of EIT Manufacturing and a member of the jury at the JA Austria Marketplace event, I am thrilled to express my gratitude for being part of such an inspiring and impactful occasion. Witnessing the creativity, dedication, and entrepreneurial spirit of the 160 students from Austria and across Europe was truly remarkable. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the jury, witnessing the budding entrepreneurs unleash their potential, and contributing to the recognition of excellence through the Best Innovation award sponsored by EIT Manufacturing. Here’s to the continued success and growth of initiatives like the JA Austria Marketplace, nurturing the next generation of innovators and leaders. It was indeed a memorable and rewarding experience, and I look forward to future opportunities to engage with such remarkable talent.

Rosina Preis, Competence and Knowledge Manager at EIT Manufacturing East 

About Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement is a programme for students to help them generate ideas, establish businesses and run them up to one school year, allowing them to develop and train their entrepreneurial and soft skills by experiencing the real business world. The Austrian organisation of JA engages more than 4 000 students to take part in their different programmes each school year, supported by 300 educators and 400 business volunteers. The global network JA Worldwide has once again been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the educational and societal impact it creates as one of the world’s largest and most-impactful youth-serving NGOs. The JA Marketplace 2024 will be followed by the nation-wide competition and the finals in June 2024 with the winning teams from all over Austria. On the occasion, EIT Manufacturing will award the most sustainable solution with the Green Manufacturing Award 2024.

On the European level, the Junior Achievement network will celebrate the achievements of European students aged 15 and onwards at the Gen-E event in Catania, Italy, from 2 to 4 July 2024, where thousands of young entrepreneurs will showcase their cutting-edge business ideas and will be competing for the titles of Best Company and Best Start-Up of the Year.