On 27 June 2019 the 9th round of the competition of innovative ideas - startups „Have an idea? Present your startup!“ was held on the premises of USP TECHNICOM. The competition is announced twice a year by the Rector of the Technical University of Košice and is organized by the University Science Park TECHNICOM in close cooperation with the Slovak Business Agency (SBA), Saab AB and EIT RawMaterials Regional Center Košice at FBERG TUKE.

In the 9th round of the competition, 17 innovative ideas/projects advanced to the final. From those, the jury chose 12 projects for a pre-incubation stay in the TUKE Startup Centre: SmartMaintanance, Aponi, SmartSenior, Human mind achievement, Gridium, Instant House Construction, Smart senzorická podložka (Smart sensor pad), Košice hack token, e-TeamBuilder, Vápenný koks (Lime coke), Recyklácia cigaretových filtrov (Recycling of filters from cigarettes) and Revolution Square.

Advancing startups were chosen by an expert committee led by its chairman, prof. Ing. Anton Čižmár, CSc., the Vice-rector of TUKE. Members of the committee were representatives of the private and public sectors: representatives of USP TECHNICOM – F. Jakab, A. Lavrin, Ľ. Kolesár, P. Čižmár; P. Mirossay (Košice IT VALLEY), M. Biňas (TUKE), P. Feciľak (TUKE), J. Kronovetterová (SBA), J. Vojtko (FPT), T. Pavlík (EIT RawMaterials Regional Center, TUKE).

Competing startups had an opportunity to get a ticket to the TUKE Startup Centre, which includes a 6-month acceleration programme aimed at supporting their development and providing of office space at the USP TECHNICOM. The TUKE Startup Centre offers support to startups in various forms depending on their current needs, including the possibility to use premises in the TUKE Startup Centre and the necessary research and development capacities of unique professional workplaces, laboratories and other facilities at TUKE for free. Furthermore, it offers help with creation of business plans, acquiring partners, searching for potential investors as well as expert and mentor support. Projects in pre-incubation period, i.e. in the stage of an idea, as well as foreign projects that plan to carry out their activities in Slovakia could take part in the competition. Since 2014, more than 120 innovative projects have been involved in the competition and more than 40 prospective startups with an innovative market potential have been involved in the Startup Centre acceleration programme. Several startups have managed to win investors´ support and market products and services in the focus areas of USP TECHNICOM.

After completing the 6-month pre-incubation stay in the Startup Centre, the teams have the opportunity to advance to the TUKE Incubator, which is part of the business acceleration ecosystem of the USP TECHNICOM at TUKE.