Start-up Cup @ H-BRS: Ideas competition 2026

The awarding of the special prizes is optional, takes place separately from the main competition and is linked to the respective award conditions.

► Special prize Impact: The prize is awarded to start-up ideas that specifically address social or ecological challenges and place impact at the centre of their business model. The focus is on concepts with social innovation, a focus on the common good or sustainability.

The best impact idea wins a ticket for the 2nd  Bonn Impact Pitch Night on 3  November 2026. Teams from the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg region will compete against each other in a pitch event, present their ideas to investors and have the chance to win cash prizes.

► Special prize DIGITALHUB.DE: The DIGITALHUB.DE honours digital-oriented ideas that have designed either an innovative product or an innovative service. The special prize includes inclusion in the "HubGrade" accelerator programme worth over EUR 30,000.

Included in the package: 6 months premium coworking membership; support from professional coaches & experienced mentors; weekly meetups & workshops; invitations to exclusive events and access to the network; professional photos, videos & premium promotion; option to receive € 14.400 NRW start-up grant per founder:in; high chance of five- to six-figure seed funding; intros to business angels, VC's & institutional investors; 20,000+ in cloud credits & perks.

The package may not be passed on to third parties and the cash value cannot be paid out. The special prize is linked to the access requirements of the Digital Hub in Bonn: You are a start-up with a digital business model; not yet founded or 2 years after founding; from Bonn or the surrounding area; motivated and ready to take off.

No. Companies that have already been founded are excluded from participation this year in order to ensure fair comparability of ideas.

Yes, participation is possible for individuals or start-up teams.

Yes. Your documents will be treated confidentially and used exclusively for the competition. Final teams will present their idea at a public event.

Yes, that is possible. A separate application should be completed for each idea

We will also support you after the competition in the further development of your idea and accompany you in the next steps.

Yes. You may submit and pitch in English. Please note that the final event will primarily be held in German.

• Eligible to participate are students (currently enrolled or starting their studies in the winter semester 2026/2027), employees and alumni (graduated no more than ten years ago) of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg with a start-up idea. 
• Participation is possible for both individuals and start-up teams. (In the case of founding teams, at least one person must be a student, employee or alumnus of H-BRS. In the event of a win, the prize will only be awarded to this person)
• The competition excludes start-up ideas on the basis of which a corporation (GmbH / UG) has already been founded or business operations have commenced by the submission deadline.
• All start-up ideas received in full by 16 August 2026, 11.59 pm will be considered. Documents that are submitted in addition to the pitch deck and the corresponding explanation via the notes function cannot be taken into account in the evaluation.
• The idea must have been developed independently by the founding team and must not infringe the rights of third parties.
• Ideas that have already been presented in the final in previous years cannot be submitted again.
• The organisers reserve the right to change the advertised prizes for organisational reasons. There is no entitlement to a specific prize.
• The organisers reserve the right to change the conditions of participation or to terminate the competition at any time, even without prior notice.

• The participants indemnify the organiser against all conceivable third-party claims that could be derived from any infringement of copyrights, statutory property rights, trade secrets and other rights by the submitted documents.

  Protection of ideas and data protection

• The H-BRS and CENTIM will not pass on the personal data of participants to unauthorised third parties. The following personal data will be processed for the ideas competition, which can only be viewed and processed by authorised persons:
  • Name, First name
  • E-mail address
  • Telephone number
  • Relationship to the university
• The submitted start-up ideas are subject to copyright protection. Documents provided by the participants will be treated confidentially by H-BRS, in particular by all jury members involved, and used exclusively for the organisation of the start-up competition. They will be deleted at the end of the competition. There is no right to return the submitted documents.
• Participating start-up teams that qualify for the final agree to present their idea at the final event by submitting their entry and consent to the organiser creating and reproducing image and video recordings of the participants for information and documentation purposes and publishing them in print and audiovisual media. Specifically, publication on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, on the university website and in the university newsletter is planned.

• By participating in the competition, participants expressly agree to the conditions of participation.

  Further information on data protection
  We hereby inform you about the processing of your personal data. We also inform you about your rights and who you can contact if you have any questions. This data protection information applies in addition to the data protection policy of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg: https://www.h-brs.de/de/datenschutz.

  Who is responsible for data processing?
  The university Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (CENTIM), Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, represented by the President, is responsible for data processing for the ideas competition. The following contact details are available: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS), Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, e-mail: praesident@h-brs.de, Tel.: +49 2241 865 0, Fax: +49 2241 865 609

  Who can you contact if you have questions about data protection?
  For questions about data processing, you can contact the university's Data Protection Commissioner. The following contact options are available: Data Protection commissioner of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS), Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, E-Mail: datenschutzbeauftragte@h-brs.de.
  
  What data is processed?
  The following personal data is processed for the ideas competition:
  name, first name, email address, telephone number, relationship to the university, date of business registration/name of company if applicable.

  For what purposes do we process your data and what is the legal basis?
  The data is processed for participation in the ideas competition. Specifically, this means that we collect your data for the purpose of processing the ideas competition and notifying the winners and store it for the duration of the ideas competition. The legal basis for data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a-c EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if the data subject has consented to the data processing or a contract or legal obligation (voluntary participation in the ideas competition) is to be fulfilled. Consent can be withdrawn at any time.

  How long will the data be stored?
  We generally only store your data for as long as we need it for the respective processing purposes, i.e. the data you provide will be deleted as soon as the purpose for which it was stored no longer applies.

  What rights do data subjects have?
  As a data subject, you have the right (1) to information about the personal data stored about you in accordance with the provisions of Article 15 GDPR; (2) to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data in accordance with Article 16 GDPR; (3) to erasure of your personal data in accordance with Article 17 GDPR; (4) to appeal against the processing of your data; (5) to restriction of the processing of your data in accordance with Article 18 GDPR; (6) to data portability in accordance with Article 20 GDPR; (7) to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority (LDI NRW (nrw.de)) (8) Right to withdraw consent.

For more information, please see our data protection policy: https://www.h-brs.de/de/datenschutz