Ideation Program

Overview

3-month sprint – from idea to pre-seed readiness
Continuous 1:1 coaching
Development of a business plan (including financial planning) and a pitch deck

The Ideation Program in detail

Apply for our Ideation Program via the link below! The 3-month Ideation Program is structured along three milestones: Kick-off, Half-time Pitch and Final Pitch. Within 3 months, the essential building blocks for your future startup are developed in continuous 1:1 coaching. During the coaching, we support you in defining a clear, coherent business model and creating a convincing application for a pre-seed funding program. Our team can support you in particular in the application process for the EXIST funding programs (Gründungsstipendium and Forschungstransfer).
As part of the ideation program, a pitch deck, a short idea paper and a business plan are developed. The teams are accompanied by continuous 1:1 coaching from our experienced start-up coaches from the definition of a business model to successful pre-seed financing.
The first session of the ideation program, the kick-off, serves to get to know the batch and the personal coaches. After 6 weeks, the program continues with a dedicated pitch exercise, the half-time pitch. At the end of the Ideation Program, the results are presented in the Final Pitch and the teams receive constructive, well-founded feedback. During the program, your team will have access to many useful, exclusive services and the Aachen start-up ecosystem.
The program does not include any IP or participation tasks. We only expect the full commitment of your team after our acceptance! Apply now for our Ideation Program via the link below!

Target group and selection criteria

What are we looking for?

Team: We are looking for a complementary skill set and an existing mentoring network. We want to see that the teams are motivated and have a strong interest in the program.
Business Idea: The idea should be innovative and fill a missing gap in the market. Show us that you are competitive, through your research advantage and possibly through an already existing IP.
Business Model: We want to see that your business model is well thought. Ideally, you can already present some pilot customers.
Feasibility: Convince us that your idea can be transformed into a comprehensive business plan within our program and into a market-ready technology.

Basic criterion:
At least one member of the team must have been employed at a university or research institute within the last three years. In this context, studying at such an institution is also considered employment.

For solo founders, we offer support in finding co-founders; we recommend participating in the Founders' Bootcamp program for generating ideas.

Application timeline

The Ideation program starts every 3 months! Below you find an overview of the future start dates of the program. You can apply for each batch until the respective deadline. We will then invite you and your team to an interview. Apply now using the form below!

March Batch 2026: Program start: 09.03.2026 (Application deadline: 02.02.2026)
June Batch 2026: Program start: 08.06.2026 (Application deadline: 27.04.2026)
September Batch 2026: Program start: 07.09.2026 (Application deadline: 10.08.2026)
December Batch 2026: Program start: 07.12.2026 (Application deadline: 02.11.2026)

Offerings of the ideation program

Expert Hubs

RWTH Expert Hubs complement our coaching-programs by providing topic-specific platforms for startups and

connect you with other startups and (research) experts within the RWTH network, to discuss specialized questions;
give you access to our RWTH infrastructure to further develop your prototypes;
provide you with the use of our Collective Incubator as a co-working/office space, event location and maker space;
connect you to other founders and inform you about current trends and topics through constant networking events.

Startup Services

Startup-Services: During the ideation program, your team will have access to limited startup services such as working space, pitch deck design services, access to legal office hours and much more.
Templates and materials: The program will also give you access to templates for pitch decks, financial models and also materials to take a glimpse into the world of patents.
EXIST Consultation Hour – Every month, we offer a consultation hour on public funding options, especially the EXIST funding program.

Success Stories

Accure

ACCURE is an AI-based battery management platform and emerged from Europe's largest research group for battery systems at RWTH Aachen. The three ACCURE founders – Dr. Kai Philipp Kairies, Dr. Georg Angenendt, and Dr. Johannes Palmer – took part in our ideation program. ACCURE combines top level research with a practical understanding of the industry's challenges in safely and efficiently operating and recycling batteries. Today, just 2 years after ACCURE "graduated" from the ideation program with a successful EXIST funding application, the company, consisting of more than 40 battery experts and data scientists, supports businesses worldwide in making batteries safe, reliable, and sustainable.

Learn more about the success story of ACCURE at https://www.accure.net/

ANTICIPATE

ANTICIPATE develops an AI-based assistance system for the automated verification of manual assembly processes. The two founders, Kevin Denker and Heiko Wirtz, spun off the startup from the Digital Capability Center Aachen at the end of 2021. They received support from both our Ideation and Incubation programs, which helped them successfully apply for the EXIST Business startup Grant. Today, around 10 software and AI experts work together at ANTICIPATE to make AI technologies more transparent, reliable, and easier to use for companies worldwide.

Learn more about ANTICIPATE at https://www.anticipate.ml/

IonKraft

IonKraft is a young spin-off from RWTH Aachen University. Their mission is to make plastic packaging recyclable using plasma coating technology. A wide variety of packaging is made from different plastics to make sure that it is as resistant as possible. However, these multilayer systems are not recyclable. IonKraft has developed a new barrier coating that provides the same performance as multilayer systems but is more cost-effective and fully recyclable.

Learn more about it under https://ionkraft.com/

Apply now for the Ideation Program!

If you are not yet sure whether the Ideation program is right for you, please register for our general consultation. Please fill out the form below and select “General consultation” in the first drop-down menu.