Kaunas Startup Awards

By project VIADUCT

Published on 01 August 2023

Lithuania

Vidurio ir vakarų Lietuvos regionas

About this good practice

Kaunas Startups Awards rewards startups, creating meaningful national and global innovations. The key objectives of the Awards are:
•Identify and promote successful annual innovations developed, motivate startup teams.
•Involve society members to explore the innovations developed, and raise their awareness about the role of the startups, and benefits of the products developed to society.
•Present and share the best cases of business and science collaboration practices.
•Motivate future entrepreneurs to develop the innovations, thus inspiring them to commercialize their research ides.

Process:
I. Nomination: Representatives of Kaunas Science and Technology Park, Kaunas IN, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas University of Technology Startup Space are submitting their candidates for the open competition.
II. Election: The election process consists of two stages:
1.An open vote in the mass media portal: all portal readers (society members) are voting for the greatest breakthrough innovation.
2.Jury vote (composed of organisations representing the Kaunas startup ecosystem) selects the developers who have contributed the most to the creation of the innovation ecosystem.
III. Award ceremony: The winners of the Kaunas Startups Awards are announced at an awards ceremony by the end of each year at Kaunas-Tech Park annual event, which is broadcast live on the online media platform.

Resources needed

Organising an award is a complex process, requiring the mobilisation of human, and financial resources. Approximate costs for 2022:
• human: 2700 EUR
• publicity: 5000 EUR
• event organization: 7500 EUR
Total: 15200 EUR
Private business sponsors are also being foreseen and initiated.

Evidence of success

•15 startups, innovative solutions are identified, promoted, and motivated.
•15 best cases of business and science collaboration practices are presented.
•High reach of all society members: deeper awareness about the role of the startup’s products developed. Broadcast of the awards receives >30K views.
•Strengthened cooperation between business, science, decision makers, and business support organizations: attended by ~70 representatives.

Potential for learning or transfer

Startups Awards is a powerful instrument in Kaunas region, as it helps to promote entrepreneurship, successful business and science collaboration and innovation development processes, and boost Kaunas visibility as a startup city.
The format of the award is easily replicable in every region and can be adapted according to the needs of the local area and/or of the time period.
Nominations are flexible - each award edition can address specific subtopics: MedTech, GovTech, GreenTech, and other thematic focus targeting specific global, national or regional challenges.
High science, business, innovation community and public representatives’ involvement in the nomination and awarding process.
Strong communication campaign: valuable practices on how to motivate and award innovations, spin-offs.
Awarding startups promote entrepreneurial mindset and contribute to greater research results commercialization progress and new spin-offs creation.