Call for Ideas: Impact Pitch Night

The pitch deck will be assessed as a standalone application. All relevant information should therefore be presented in a clear and comprehensible manner. The following topics should be included:

When creating your pitch deck, please bear the following points in mind:

• Sustainability issue: Which environmental, social or societal problem does your idea address?
  • Environmental: e.g. greenhouse gas reduction, biodiversity, circular economy, resource reduction, other planetary boundaries, etc.
  • Social/Societal: e.g. health, education, peace, justice/equality, social fairness, poverty, political participation, etc.
• Sustainability impact: How does your idea contribute to solving the sustainability problem, and to what extent is this at the heart of the business model? How could the impact be measured or verified; what assumptions are made?
• Business idea:
  • Customer problem and target audience: What customer problem are you solving for which target audience?
  • Solution to the customer problem: How does your offering solve the customer problem described?
  • Market and competition: How big is the target market, and which competitors are active there?
  • Level of innovation: How does your idea differ from existing solutions?
• Conflicting objectives: Does your idea result in a negative environmental or social impact (elsewhere)? How will this be addressed?
• Economic viability: What financial resources do you need to implement this? How can these needs be met in the short, medium and long term?
• Team: What relevant skills does your team possess? How can you address any skills gaps?

Terms and conditions of participation

1. Eligibility and target audience
   1. The competition is open to individuals and start-up teams with an early-stage, public-benefit or sustainable (social/environmental) business idea.
   2. To take part in the competition, at least one of the following criteria must be met:
      • Regional connection: At least one member of the team must be resident in the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region (the city of Bonn and the associated towns and municipalities of the Rhein-Sieg district) OR the submitted idea must have a specific, demonstrable link to the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region.
      • University connection: At least one member of the team must be a student, alumna or alumnus, or staff member at one of the three organising universities (Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Alanus University of Applied Sciences, University of Bonn).
2. Exclusion criteria
   1. Companies that have already been established (e.g. entered in the commercial register) or teams that have already commenced active and regular business operations on the market are excluded from participation.
   2. Incomplete, incorrect or applications received after the submission deadline will not be considered.
3. Submission and deadlines
   1. Applications must be submitted digitally via the online application form provided. The application consists of the information provided in the form and a pitch deck (maximum 14 slides) in PDF format.
   2. The deadline for submissions is 20 September 2026 at 23:59.
   3. Documents beyond the required pitch deck and application form will not be taken into account during the assessment.
   4. All participants will receive feedback on the status of their application and any nomination for the final by 5 October 2026 re-registration regarding the status of their application and any potential nomination for the final.
4. Third-party rights and indemnity
   1. The idea must have been developed independently by the founding team and must not infringe the rights of third parties.
   2. Participants shall indemnify the organiser against all conceivable claims by third parties that may arise from any infringement of copyright, statutory property rights, trade secrets or other rights by the submitted documents.
5. Prizes & Reservation regarding the awarding of prizes
   1. The organisers reserve the right to change the advertised prizes for organisational reasons. There is no entitlement to a specific prize. If there are no ideas or entries deemed worthy of a prize, no prizes will be awarded.
6.  Changes to the terms and conditions & Termination of the competition
   1. The organisers reserve the right to amend the terms and conditions at any time or to terminate, extend or modify the competition prematurely – even without prior notice – for important organisational, technical or legal reasons. This shall not give rise to any claims by participants against the organisers.
7. Organisers
   1. Organisers: Impact Pitch Night is a regional ideas competition organised by Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (Start-up-Manufaktur), Alanus University and the University of Bonn (Transfer Centre enaCom) as part of the SoNaR project.
8. Legal recourse
   1. Legal recourse is excluded. This applies in particular to the jury’s assessment of the ideas, the selection of the finalist teams and the awarding of prizes.
       

Protection of ideas and data protection 

1. The organisers will not disclose participants’ personal data to unauthorised third parties. For the ideas competition, the following personal data will be processed; this data may only be viewed and processed by authorised persons:
   • Surname, surname
   • Email address
   • Telephone number
   • where applicable, date of business registration/Company name
2. The business ideas submitted are protected by copyright. Documents provided by participants will be treated as confidential by the organisers, in particular by all members of the judging panel, and will be used exclusively for the purposes of running the start-up competition. They will be deleted once the competition has concluded. There is no right to the return of the submitted documents.
3. Participating start-up teams that qualify for the Impact Pitch Night by submitting their entry agree to present their idea at the closing event and consent to the organisers taking photographs and video recordings of the participants for information and documentation purposes, and to the organisers reproducing and publishing these in print and audiovisual media. Specifically, publication is planned on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and on the websites and in the newsletters of the organising universities.

By taking part in the competition, participants expressly agree to the terms and conditions.