Brabant student teams are making waves with their extraordinary innovations nationally and internationally. For example, students were behind the world’s fastest-charging electric racing car, the development of reusable rockets, and a new concept for modular houses. Platform BOOST and its associated grant fund will support student teams from different education levels in the North Brabant province for the next five years.
“BOOST is Brabant’s development agency for student teams,” said Nick Hol, chairman of BOOST. “With this platform, we create opportunities for young talents to develop and contribute to the future of Brabant.” In addition, to fund support and coordination between educational institutions, BOOST offers an online platform with information, events, news, and vacancies for and about student teams.
Different subsidies
The grant fund offers two types of grants to help student teams realize their innovative ideas: the Innovation Grant (up to €40,000 for large projects) and the Kickstarter Grant (up to €1,500 for early-stage initiatives). With these, BOOST and the province support initiatives that address social and technological challenges and positively impact the region.
Student teams’ bravura is indispensable
Province Administrator Martijn van Gruijthuijsen: “In Brabant, we come up with smart solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Our universities, colleges, and mbo institutions are the breeding ground for talent with innovative solutions. We can put that brainpower and bravado of students to good use, and we, as a province, are happy to give that a push. I can’t wait to see what great ideas our Brabant talent will come up with.”
Successful startups regularly emerge from student teams. BOOST wants to allow all students to set up their team or be part of another team. The grant fund is exclusively for student teams. Students with early-stage startups can reach out to Round One Ventures for funding.
Broad collaboration
To ensure that every student in Brabant has the opportunity to set up their team or participate in existing teams, BOOST is working together with ten educational institutions in North Brabant: the TU/e, Tilburg University, HAS Green Academy, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Fontys Hogescholen, Summa College, SintLucas, Design Academy Eindhoven and Ter AA. The goal is to create one large ecosystem of student teams in Brabant, at mbo, HBO, and university levels for the more than 150,000 students within the province.
In the future, the development agency wants to work toward, among other things, a public knowledge base, scholarships, shared cars for the teams, and Brabant-wide marketing to increase the teams’ visibility.
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