Empowering students and entrepreneurs to drive and foster innovation

Initiated by the EIT RawMaterials (RM) Academy and developed and organised by the Academy and Label Student Board (LSB), the first edition Label-StartUP! took place on 11-13 October 2019 in Leuven, Belgium.

Label-StartUP! brought together more than 60 master students representing 27 nationalities from all six EIT-Labelled Master Programmes in EIT RawMaterials and four EIT RawMaterials Booster funded start-ups, Metalshub, ResourceFull, Metheore, aSmartWorld as well as RawMatCop. Prior to Label-StartUP!, the EIT RawMaterials supported start-ups provided their challenges to the Label Student Board and RM Academy, which were assigned to nine diverse, pre-clustered groups of students.

At Label-StartUP! the students received entrepreneurship training provided by EIT RawMaterials project partner, Kilima, and used the United Nations SDGs as a compass to create economic and societal value. Students groups then used their disciplinary knowledge, entrepreneurship training and consultation with the EIT RawMaterials supported start-ups to develop solutions and new perspectives to the challenges of each start-up.

P-day, or Pitching Day, took place on 13 October 2019. Nine student groups pitched their solutions to four start-ups, peers and the RM Academy. Using evaluation criteria, all students cast their vote for the top three most innovative, convincing and realistic Label-StartUP! pitches. Top three innovative solutions won prizes and the accolade of being the winners of the 1st Label-StartUP! Days 2019.

  • 1st Place: Top pitch goes to “investigation of a new country or region where ResourceFull waste valorisation solutions can be applied”. EIT-Label students in this team were Sofia, Jorgina, Hugo, Massimiliano, Brian, Mariana, Fouad.
  • 2nd Place: Next pitch prize went to the group “exploring how the Metalshub business model can be transferred to new industries”. Team members included Itamar, Aina, Leen, Duco, Carolina, Erwin, Afzahl.
  • 3rd Place went to the group “addressing the potential valorisation of Bauxite Residue by recovering secondary raw materials utilising data analysis from Copernicus”. EIT-Label students in this group were Ali, Enrico, Olaf, Juliana, Ilse, Erfan, Daniele.

Stay tuned for Label-StartUP! 2020, to be organised by the next Label Student Board cohort.

Representing start-ups and research:

I feel immense pleasure after successful completion of Label-StartUP! which the Label Student Board, including myself, have planned and organised with the support of EIT RawMaterials Academy.
As part of the EIT RawMaterials Academy, Label Student Board, I proudly participated in organising the Label-StartUP! 2019 event. During this three-day experience celebrated in Leuven, 62 MSc students received guidance in market segmentation and customer value proposition in order to propose strategies for current industrial challenges of five EIT RawMaterials start-ups. I hope this event inspires curiosity in the student community for becoming entrepreneurs in the Raw Materials sector.
It was with great pleasure that we attended the Label-StartUP! event of the Label Student Board and EIT RawMaterials Academy last weekend. 62 students spent a weekend in Leuven and faced typical challenges proposed by us and four other raw material start-ups.

Thanks to all participants for your innovative ideas, creative mindsets and inspiring spirit. And congratulation to the team of our Co-Founder Frank for a terrific second place for their pitch – you guys rocked!

Supported by EIT RawMaterials Booster, Metalshub start-up
Another great experience with EIT RawMaterials Academy! This time we were in Leuven talking about how to set up a startup and what to address first in doing so. Only two days, a packed schedule, many challenges, and once again many great new people. Proud of being part of this big family that is the EIT.
I couldn’t be more satisfied with the Label Start-UP! outcome that the Label Student Board, which I’m part of, has been organising for the past few months under the guidance and support of the EIT RawMaterials Academy.

62 students from six EIT-labelled Master’s programme spent a weekend in Leuven where they faced real problems proposed by five EIT RawMaterials supported start-ups. The participants had to propose how these start-ups could grow and expand their market in the fields of sustainability and rawmaterials by keeping in mind the UN SDGs and using lectures content about customer value proposition and market segmentation so that they could create value for the market and our society.

I had the privilege of working in a team consisting of six different EIT-labelled master students with a diverse background in the Label-StartUP! program supported by EIT RawMaterials. As a person who has no background in mining, it was really interesting to learn how mineral residuals can be valorised by recovering secondary raw materials.