The Luxembourg Creative Industries Cluster is accepting applications for its Circular by Design Challenge to connect creative minds with technology, manufacturing and traditional industry to kick-start the development and market launch of new, circular products, services and digital solutions.

Building on the government’s goal of positioning Luxembourg as a frontrunner in the circular economy, the Challenge invites creatives to develop their circular ideas through a 12-week coaching programme.

At the end of the programme, the winners of the Challenge will be rewarded with partnership deals with industry partners in order to jointly implement and produce their ideas.

Scope

The proposed challenge will:

• Raise awareness for CE with other industries,
• Bring forth new ideas and solutions,
• Emphasize the CE efforts made in the country,
• Help develop economically viable and feasible solutions that respond to the CE principles,
• Offer a dedicated coaching programme for 15 candidates,
• Implement the winning ideas through partnerships.

Categories

This edition of the Challenge will support early stage ideas, business models and design developments in 5 categories:

• Sustainable Cities
• Industry 4.0
• Fashion Design
• Mobility
• Luxembourg – Let’s Make It Happen

Funding Information

• Each winner will also receive an award of €7,000, participation in a 4-week virtual international accelerator programme provided by the US accelerator gener8tor and 6 months of free access to co-working office space.

Eligibility Criteria

The Programme is open to innovative projects or entrepreneurs from around Europe that meet all the following criteria:

• The applicants have to have a legal entity in Europe. If this is not the case, it is still possible to apply, but the participant has to have incorporated a company by the end of the coaching session in order to be eligible to win.
• If the Applicant already incorporated a company, this must meet the small or medium enterprise criteria as stipulated in annex I in the Commission regulation (EU) N° 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and108 of the Treaty.
• The Applicant team can be composed of one to maximum four people, with at least one person attending all sessions during the Coaching Phase ofthe Programme.
• Participants must be at least 18 years of age or older as of the starting date of the Programme.
• The Applicant may be any early-stage and/or more advanced project.
• It is not necessary to have a minimum viable product (‘MVP’) at the application stage.
• The proposed project has to match at least one of the criteria for Circular Economy as defined on the Project website.

Judging Criteria

• The Jury is composed of independent experts from the private and public sector with relevant business experience, who are selected by the Organiser. All Jury members are required to sign a code of ethics managing potential situations of conflict of interest in relation to the selected projects and guaranteeing non-disclosure of any project information obtained during their role asJury member.
• The role of the Jury is:
  • To select applications that will be admitted to the pitching session
  • to select the Participants at the conclusion of the Digital Pitching Sessions;
  • in view of the different projects’ development stage and needs, to set during the first Steering Committee different goals and objectives, in coordination with the Coaches and Participants;
  • to monitor and judge through the monthly Steering Committees the Participants’ performance during the Coaching Phase. The monitoring is based on the Participants’ pitches, their presteering committee reports and their progress on graduation goals.
• At the end of the Coaching Phase, the Jury identifies the Winners for each category, based on agreed achievement of goals, their attendance to coaching sessions, as well as their commitment to the Programme.

For more information, visit https://creativecluster.lu/circular-design-challenge