Promoting entrepreneurship among EIT-labelled master students

Label-StartUP! 2021 gathered EIT-labelled master students and EIT RawMaterials supported start-ups to share their stories and promote entrepreneurship among the students. Initiated by the EIT RawMaterials Academy and organised jointly by the Label Student Board (LSB) 2020, the third edition of Label-StartUP! took place virtually on 29-30 April 2021. This year, Label-StartUP! brought together over 100 master students representing more than 40 nationalities from all six EIT-Labelled master programmes with ten EIT RawMaterials funded start-ups.

From bringing ideas to the market to why fuel cells are the way to save polar bears – entrepreneurs share their valuable experience

At Label-StartUP! students had the possibility to listen to inspiring stories from the representatives of start-ups covering a wide range of topics. Julian Bosch from Intrapore, in his “From lab life to the real world – My story of building an EIT start-up” talk, explained the story of his start-up and discussed how finding the right partners is the most important thing. Martyna Szydlowska from Fractuscan shared insights on how to set up a start-up as a graduate from an EIT-labelled programme, while Yun Luo from ROSI presented her deep tech start-up and inspired the audience to think like leaders and not only like managers.

Petya Atanasova from Erzlabor shared her experience going from a lab to a start-up and explained how beneficial scientific background could be for an entrepreneur. Riccardo Momoli from Particular Materials shared his story about going from a family-owned business to a corporate and start-up. Students learned about the power of networking from Phil Brown, Circularise, who shared tips on how to turn an idea into reality, and that one should be adaptable when considering working in a start-up. Matija Gatalo from ReCatalyst explained in an inspiring way the importance of nanotechnology and why fuel cells are the way to save polar bears. Students got insights into the difference between working in a big company and a start-up from Jan Spaniol, Hovering Solutions. 

Martin Spitznagel from Bind-X talked about the next generation of dust control driving the biologisation of the mining industry. Together with Diego Ignacio Laza Martín from abaut, EIT-labelled master students dived into the topic of industrial IoT and data analysis to support mining companies. And these are just some of the amazing stories that the attendees had the chance to get to know.

The number of opinions about entrepreneurship paths equals the number of people who tell their entrepreneurship stories – a lot to learn from the diversity of speakers participating in the event.

Label-StartUP! invited speaker

Connecting the next generation of changemakers with well-established start-ups

Moreover, during matchmaking sessions, students had a chance to meet start-ups representatives and discuss opportunities such as internships and thesis topics. The attending students also got a possibility to get a more personal interaction with them. There, start-up’s founders also shared valuable advice for future entrepreneurs!

I really liked the industries selected for the seminar. A wide area of expertise really helped us to understand how interdisciplinary careers are. Every field of study equally contributes towards sustainable development goals or towards the benefit of the people and planet overall.

Label-StartUP! participant

To inspire the students to find entrepreneurs in themselves, Mridul Pareek, SINReM student, shared his story of founding a start-up and the challenges and benefits associated with it. Furthermore, Ali Hassan, president of EIT RawMaterials Alumni, presented the students the importance of networking and the benefits of joining the EIT RawMaterials Alumni for their future careers.

I liked how well diversified was the line of businesses of the start-ups presenting during the event. The presenters were really open to ask the most basic questions, and I personally saw myself in the position of one of the presenters in a new future. Even though it was online, I liked the level organisation of the moderators, well prepared.

Label-StartUP! participant

This year’s event was co-led by students from each of the EIT-labelled programmes: Hamza Jamil (AMIR), Mohamed Elamir Mohammadein (AMIS), Luis Whittle (EMC), Nikita Malafeevskiy (RaMES), Martha Henderson (SINReM) and Tansu Canbolat (SUMA).

Stay tuned for Label-StartUP! 2022, to be organised by the next Label Student Board cohort!

We would like to thank all participating start-ups and guest speakers: