The world's largest chemical company BASF decided this year to support the startup ideas of young innovators from the region, including young innovators, especially students from from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The BASF Innovation Hub 2021 competition will focus on ideas that contribute to clean technologies and innovations aimed at improving environmental sustainability. The best innovation or startup idea at the national level will receive an initial investment of € 2,500, along with the possibility of additional support of € 5,000.

BASF Innovation Hub 2021 consists of two main segments:

1. BASF Innovation Hub 2021 local competitions and that's the first part of the competition. Five best local teams will get the opportunity to present their ideas in front of the local jury, which chooses the local winner who automatically attends BASF Innovation Hub 2021 Grand Finale.
   
   
2. BASF Innovation Hub 2021 Grand Finale: a unique opportunity for winners to present their innovations and startup ideas to a wider audience and potentially secure investment for their further development. 

Local competitions are organized separately:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia – joint competition
• Austria and Hungary – joint competition,
• Bulgaria,
• Greece,
• Czech Republic and Slovakia – joint competition and
• Romania.

BASF Innovation Hub 2021 aims to provide support to young innovators or startup ideas covering at least one of the following topics:

• Clean energy - Solutions for clean, reliable and affordable energy (examples include: Digital solutions that focus on increasing process and energy efficiency, solutions for increasing the share of renewable energies in power supply (thermal, solar, wind), thermal energy and insulation solutions, optimizing heating and cooling and ventilation, decarbonizing energy systems or promoting zero-emission technologies);
• Farm to fork - Solutions for sustainable agriculture (examples include: Precision application technologies, digital farming advisory services, digital farming solutions, solutions that contribute to more sustainable food systems, selective crop protection products and biological crop protection);
• Circular economy - Solutions that enable transition to circular economy (examples include: Solutions that contribute to more sustainable, more environmentally-respectful production cycles, digital base for closed-loop recycling, solutions for biodegradable and biobased plastics, (bio)chemical recycling solutions, recycling process catalysts, recycling of battery materials and resource-efficient products and services).

Registrations are open from June 7 to September 15, 2021.

Local Jury will choose the local winner, who automatically attends BASF Innovation Hub 2021 Grand Finale. Top 5 participants from each country cluster will present their ideas in front of the local Jury.

More info here.

Resources:
http://www.unizg.hr/nc/vijest/article/basf-innovation-hub-2021-prilika-za-mlade-inovatore-i-startup-ove/
https://join-innovationhub.com/