On June 27, 2019, the first round of innovative ideas competition – startups took place in the premises of UVP TECHNICOM “Business Idea Accelerator”. The competition was organized by the University Science Park TECHNICOM in cooperation with the Slovak Business Agency (SBA), Saab AB and the Raw Materials Regional Center, FBERG TUKE.

17 innovative ideas / projects have advanced to the final of the competition. The committee selected thirteen projects for their pre-incubation stay at the Startup Center TUKE: SmartMaintanance, Aponi, SmartSenior, Human Mind Achievement, Gridium, Instant House Construction, Košice hack token, e-TeamBuilder, Lime Coke, Cigarette Filter Recycling, Smart Rescuer Against Water, and Revolution Square.

The advancing start-ups were judged by an expert committee led by prof. Ing. Anton Čižmár, CSc. Members of the commission were:

• F. Jakab, A. Lavrin, Ľ. Kolesár, P. Čižmár – UVP TECHNICOM
• P. Mirossay – Košice IT VALLEY,
• M. Biňas, P. Feciľak – TUKE,
• J. Kronovetterová – SBA,
• J. Vojtko – FPT,
• T. Pavlík – EIT RawMaterials Regional Center, TUKE.

Competitive start-ups had the opportunity to get a ticket to the Startup TUKE center, which includes a 6-month acceleration program to support their development and office space in UVP TECHNICOM. Furthermore, help with the creation of business plans, acquiring partners, searching for potential investors as well as expert and mentor support. Projects in the so-called pre-incubation period (at the stage of an idea from any part of Slovakia as well as foreign projects that plan to carry out their activities in Slovakia) could participate in the competition.