Blue Energy & Beyond

This in-person and live-streamed live event on the 2nd of June will feature start-ups sharing their innovative technologies and how they aim to make a sustainable impact. The theme of the evening is water, and how new technologies can harness and use water’s potential to make an impact. As with all StartHub Wageningen events, there will be the chance to meet up and chat with other audience members, entrepreneurs and speakers after the event.

So are you interested in making a splash?

Hearing the buzz

An interactive webinar with entrepreneurs talking about the potential of insects

Insects are all around us and have an influence on the world we live in. Entrepreneurs all over the world are realizing the potential insects have and are taking inspiration from them. On the 30th of September StartHub will invite 3 speakers to talk about their journey and how they interact with insects. Even though insects are at the core of each of their ideas, they vary substantially. Are you curious about the influence, applications and potential of insects, join us on the 30th!

The speakers:

• Floor van Haasdrecht - BeeGrateful

  BeeGrateful is an Enactus Wageningen team that strives to make pollinators, which are important for food production and biodiversity, feel at home in the urban areas by creating 'insect hotels'.

• Saptarshi Mukhopadhyay - InsectSense

  Saptarshi Mukhopadhyay is part of InsectSense. You might have heard about them on the news since they managed to train bees to detect Covid-19! In general, the company explores the potential of insects to improve the quality of our lives.

• Arnold van Huis - Wageningen University & Research

  Arnold van Huis is emeritus professor at Wageningen University. He has been working in food security since 2010 and is considered one of the experts when it comes to insects as food and feed in that field.

Agriculture, what’s next?

A webinar on entrepreneurs & actors in the local food and agriculture scene.

What is the future of agriculture? What are the solutions to solve our problems? During this webinar, organised together with FoodHack Wageningen, you will hear stories from entrepreneurs and actors active in the local food and agriculture scene.

The speakers:

• Nikolaos Alfieris - FarmVent

  FarmVent is an agri-tech start-up that focuses on vertical farming, developing turnkey modular automated farms for herbs and leafy greens.

• Brad Vanstone - Willicroft

  Willicroft makes vegetable cheese for cheese lovers! The company is on a mission to create a transitional farming solution for farmers. Land currently used by dairy cows will be converted into bean fields, lowering emmissions and creating a more responsible food system.

• Michaël Wilde - Bionext

  Bionext is an organization that connects the farmer to the consumer in organic agriculture & food chains.

RISE NL

A three-day event in collaboration with Academic Business Club Tilburg, TU/e Innovation Space, UtrechtInc Students, DSIF, Kickoff Eindhoven, Dutch Students for Entrepreneurship, Lugus Leiden, ECE, Founder Club Maastricht, Yes!Delft Students, Maastricht Entrepreneurs and StartHub Wageningen

From the 31st of May until the 2nd of June the very first edition of RISE NL came to life! Twelve students from eleven different student organisations all over the Netherlands organised a three-day event in Delft, while only seeing each other for the first time on the 31st of May.

From our own StartHub community Frej Gustafsson from Reshore participated in The Grand Keynote in the discussion panel, FarmVent and Ephora Solutions in the Lion’s Cage and Laminara won the audience prize in The Battle!

A short summary of the entire event can be found in this article.

Inspiration - Food waste: grow your idea from scraps

An interactive webinar on turning food waste into a sustainable business

Food wastage is a complex problem that has tremendous financial, ethical and environmental costs. It can occur anywhere along the food chain from production to consumption and it causes range from improper handling to overly-selective customers. Of course the consumer can help! But as the ecosystem for entrepreneurship in Wageningen, we believe it is possible to offer a solution to this issue providing value and making businesses around it. You too?

In our most interactive inspiration event thus far on the 20th of April, organised in collaboration with StartLife, we put our heads together to think of a new product that can be made out of food waste. Heidi from KRUSH and Laura from SUNT were there to talk about their passion for reducing food waste. We started from scratch with your ideas on food parts that can be repurposed or reused. But how do you know your product aligns with what your customer values and needs? And how do you get your product on store shelves? Click on the button to re-watch the event!

inspiration - Turning the tide on plastic pollution

An interactive webinar on innovators working towards a world without plastic waste

Plastic is all around us. In our clothes, phones, computers, cars, houses, packaging. Although a small part of it is recycled or burnt, around 80% of plastics end up in the environment, sticking around for ages. Sadly, 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean a year. Without big action and continueing polluting as we are now, the pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the ocean by 2050.

It’s time to turn the tide on plastic pollution! Get inspired by the entrepreneurial journey of 3 different startups & innovators, and how they help tackle plastic pollution in different ways. Tim van Emmerik, assistant professor at the Wageningen University & Research and former Head of River Research of The Ocean Cleanup gave a scientific overview of the plastic pollution problem. Additionally he told us about the importance of good data and how the River Plastic Monitoring Project he set up can help.

Next-up Tim de Rooij, founder of Plastic Playgrounds, showed how he gives dolly rope a new purpose. Lastly, Linde and Floor from De Gieterij were present; a shop in the city centre of Wageningen, where you can buy groceries locally and package-free. Interested to hear their stories, learn more about plastic pollution and what you can do yourself? Watch the event!

inspiration - Small life, Big Impact: The application of microorganisms

An interactive webinar on pioneers unlocking the potential of bacteria, fungi and algae. 

“You can’t see them, but they’re here. They are on you. In you. And you already got more than a hundred thousand billion of them. They are with you when you drink, when you breathe, when you kiss. They are everywhere. In your belly, the deepest oceans and in the air. And they meddle in everything. They shape your and our world: whether our soils are fertile or not or whether you get sick or better. They can let us thrive or let us sink. Microbes: the smallest and most powerful organisms on our planet.” 

These microorganisms are playing an increasingly important role in the search for sustainable solutions to ever more severe problems. It is hard to think of a field where microorganisms are not involved in; we use them to brew our beers, manufacture our antibiotics and filter our wastewater. In this webinar we will show you how microorganisms are used in even more innovative ways. You can think of living materials made from fungi, food from algae, mayonnaise made by yeast and much more. On the 25th of March from 19:30 – 21:00h multiple entrepreneurs shared their journey on how they are making a big impact using the smallest life on earth. 

Diversity week - ‘‘Is this also for men?’’

An interactive webinar about female entrepreneurship

‘’Is this also for men?’’ YES! Up until now, the conversation about female entrepreneurship is often one that is held between only women. Let’s change that!

The fact is, the world of entrepreneurship is male dominated and women keep on experiencing gender bias as an entrepreneur. Diversity in companies is something we all benefit from, and we want to start the conversation between all genders about this topic.

On International Women’s Day we talked about female entrepreneurship. Wendy de Jong, managing director of OostNL, Pim de Bokx, business incubator manager, and Dieuwertje de Wagenaar, working at Circular Fashion Lab and Wageningen University and Research talked about their experiences and answer all your questions about this topic.

‘‘What you don't see, does exist’’ - Venture capital 101: fundraising for female founders

Lena and Kyra from ASIF Ventures will tell you all there is to know about venture capital, which is a very specific type of investment for a very unique type of company. In short, when a startup reaches the point where it begins to commercialize its innovation, venture capitalists can offer funding, networks, expertise, and in some cases, validation and credibility for a startup. Are you interested in how this works, the accompanying risks and what is in it for both the VC’s and founders?

‘‘What you don't see, does exist’’ - Intellectual property

Are you an inventor, designer, developer or author? If so, you can protect your work by claiming intellectual property rights, which means that others will be unable to use your work without your consent. But how do you claim your intellectual property? And should you do this for your idea too? In this online workshop, Mark Jolink, who is an experienced patent attorney at EP&C in the field of molecular biology, DNA technology and immunology, will explain in what situations you can and should (or should not) protect your idea and with which rights you can do this.

Startup your taste

Always wondered what it is like to be an entrepreneur in a branch with endless possibilities and innovation?

Watch the interactive webinar collaboration between Starthub Wageningen and the study associations Mercurius and Nicolas Appert: ‘Startup Your Taste’! During this webinar, four different startups in the food sector will talk about their unique products, technologies and inspiring journey as a food entrepreneur.