On Thursday March 5th, the Philips Innovation Award 2015 announced its 10 semi-finalists during the Announcement Day hosted at the ECE Campus. The Announcement Day gave all participants the chance to meet the Business Panel – a panel of experts who judged the plans. One thing all 10 semi-finalists clearly have in common: they are gamechangers.

Drum-rolls and eager anticipation aside, the teams behind Athom, Bleeve, KINEGRITY, Printr, ReSnap, Smart Blocks, The Blue Battery, VSParticle, Social Sponsoring and Pearltect convinced the jury of their potential. Although ideas did not have to be technical to be successful, most of the semi-finalists used innovative technology to give themselve an edge. All semi-finalists will be introduced to the public leading up to the semi-final on the 9th of April.

We are also happy to see that six Dutch universities are represented by the 10 semi-finalists: Erasmus University Rotterdam (Bleeve and Pearltect), University of Twente (Athom and Printr), Eindhoven University of Technology (KINEGRITY), Radboud University Nijmegen (ReSnap), Utrecht University (Social Sponsoring) and Delft University of Technology (Smart Blocks, The Blue Battery and VSParticle).

In the coming weeks, the semi-finalists will be prepared for the semi-final. One of the highlights is the Coaching Day on the 20th of March at the ABN AMRO Innovation Centre. During the Coaching Day the semi-finalists will get inspiration and guidance from several partners. At the semi-final it will be determined which 5 semi-finalists move on to become a finalist. The 5 finalists will proceed to the Final on the 21st of May.

We can only hope the Final will be as exciting as the announcement of the semi-finalists was! Well done to those who made it to the next round, we look forward to hearing how your innovative ideas and plans develop.

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