Kick-off: Erasmus University Challenge!
Wow, what a blast! On April 4th we officially kicked-off the Erasmus University Challenge. What an amazing vibe thanks to all the students and partners who attended. 71 teams, 157 students, 35 partners, 78 coaches and lots of entrepreneurial fun. We look forward to seeing all the progress on your innovative ideas!
A special shout out to our inspirational speakers of the day: Ansgar Richter from Rotterdam School of Management and Jan Borghuis & Gijs van Lookeren Campagne, founders of Ease2pay & Greenwheels. Furthermore a huge thank you for the out-of-the-box workshop hosted by ErasmusX for challenging us with the How to Fail workshop. Of course we ended the day with networking drinks, DJ and pizza. Let’s spread the entrepreneurial fun!
Next stop? Workshop Idea Validation and VR Inspiration on April 20th at Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. See you there!
The 2nd edition of the Erasmus University Challenge has officially started!
Welcome to the Erasmus University Challenge! For the 2nd year, Erasmus University and Erasmus Enterprise - in collaboration with Soapbox - create the amazing opportunity for students to learn and improve by developing their own business ideas with support from many educational and industry partners. Whether the idea is based on a prototype, scientific project, or your sheer motivation, everybody with an impactful idea is welcome!
Besides online and offline coaching of our invaluable network, developing your personal skills and many opportunities for networking, there are of course also many prizes to win worth up to €10.000,-!
Registration deadline has passed.
Check out the participants here!
Why should you participate?
Showcase your idea or startup and let your entrepreneurial journey begin!
Connect and interact with the network and attend workshops and fun events.
Grow both your idea or startup and yourself personally.
Achieve new insights, skills, connection and various prizes!
Business cases get inspired and help partners with their challenges.
Career and internship opportunities with our partner network.

Prizes

Start-up Award
€5.000,-

Prototyping Award
€4.000,-

Ideation Award
€3.000,-
Besides these prizes you can win the audience award (€1000,-) and many more such as co-working spaces, professional coaching to support further developing your idea and a year of free drinks!
Timeline Erasmus University Challenge
Journey Rotterdam - Delft
Kick-off Event
Workshop Idea Validation
Speed Date Event
Workshop Prototyping
Final Workshop
Grand Finale
Kick-off Event
Workshop Idea Validation
Speed Date Event
Workshop Prototyping
Final Workshop
Grand Finale
Stage Two: A huge success
By winning the Prototpying Award during the Grand Finale of the Erasmus University Challenge 2022, team OASYS NOW won entry tickets for the Stage Two pan-European competition for the best startups spinning out of leading universities. Together with Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship they travelled to Berlin and went for the win! They proved themselves once more to be indeed one of the best startups - by winning 100,000 euros from venture capital giant Earlybird Venture Capital, to build their ethical DNA database! A huge success for OASYS NOW.

It’s a wrap for the first Erasmus University Challenge!
WOW! We are still buzzing from the energy in the Excelsior Stadium on September 15th. Thank you to everyone involved - especially to all participants and finalists as well as partners, coaches, jury members and of course the amazing crowd!
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the category awards of the Erasmus University Challenge 2022: Minus & CO (Ideation) and OASYS NOW (Prototyping). VECTOR platform got the recognition of the audience in the form of the Audience Award – congrats! We also want to thank Shell for awarding team Minus & CO with the Energy Transition Award.
Last but not least, we want to thank the Erasmus University and Erasmus Enterprise for all of their hard work and dedication during the entire time.
In the past months, we went from 35 inspiring projects, to eight amazing finalists. We appreciate that so many students participated with their brilliant and innovative ideas - without your bright minds and ideas, there is no Erasmus University Challenge. We look forward to seeing you grow and wish you all the best in the future!
