On 21 April, the UN-designated world creativity and innovation day, Luxembourg announced the 6 winners of its innovative circularity challenge.
Franz Fayot, minister of the economy, said the challenge was “important if we want to build a more circular economy,” adding that this was “in the centre of [his] political agenda.”
First launched in October 2020, the Circular by Design Challenge pilot edition took place in the midst of the pandemic. One-and-a-half years later, participants, judges and presenters were delighted to be able to attend the award ceremony in person.
Deemed a success by the minister of the economy, the second edition’s organisers were keen to take the event to the next level. They did so by adding the categories Mobility/Industry 4.0, Youth Category and Luxembourg – Let’s make it happen. Furthermore, they also opened this edition to creatives from all over Europe.
“The overall outcome of the call has been overwhelming. We have seen 68 projects submitted from 19 different countries. A big success indeed,” commented Fayot.
Turning Projects Into Reality
Out of the 68 projects, 14 were selected to participate in a special 12-week programme to flesh out their ideas and fine-tune their business models. While they all learnt some invaluable lessons, at the end of the day there could only be one winner per category.
The second edition awarded the following winners with €7,000 in prize money from the ministry of economy, a few additional weeks at Gener8tor’s accelerator, 6 months at a co-working space free of charge and for some, a corporate partnership.
- Luxembourg – Let’s make it happen: RF:Cocoon (Timothy Tan/Marion Delaporte) & Multi-purpose balm (Céline Coelho)
- Fashion Design: Well Rounded (Katia Vladimirova)
- Mobility/Ind4.0: Greenpixel (Harry Edelman)
- Sustainable Cities: on.perfekt (Estelle Flammang / Julia Gregor)
- Youth Challenge: PoP Up PoD (Arghavan Akbarieh)
Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation said: “Turning these projects into reality is absolutely key and [Luxinnovation] are there to continue to accompany these projects into viable products and services.”
