The VSNU has teamed up with the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (AcTI) and StartupDelta to organise a competition for academic startups: The 10 Dutch pioneering innovations from science, in the run-up to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on 4 and 5 June in The Hague. The competition offers academic startups the chance to showcase themselves to a large audience of international investors and businesses. 

International platform for academic startups
The GES, an initiative of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has already received over 5,000 applications from leading international companies. The winners of the startup competition will be given an international platform to present their startup to a global audience. For Dutch universities, this is an opportunity to shine an international spotlight on valorisation within the universities. Academic startups are extremely important for the Netherlands due to their often innovative breakthroughs that impact society in many ways.  

Five GES themes 
The KTOs of universities, university medical centres and institutes affiliated with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) can nominate startups from their institution for this competition. The five GES themes for which startups can be nominated are: Health, Food & Agriculture, Water, Energy and Connectivity. A preliminary round will be held at Epicenter Amsterdam on 14 May, after which the 10 best startups will be nominated to take part in the GES. Each university can nominate up to three academic startups per GES theme. The deadline for submitting nominations is 8 April 2019.