What is BISC-E?
BISC-E encourages students to explore the emerging bio-based work field while developing a new bio-based product or process. Are you up for the challenge?
The Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E) is a Europe-wide student competition to stimulate entrepreneurship and award excellence. BISC-E seeks to raise awareness and involve students in the transition towards a bio-based economy.
Are you up to the challenge? Register with the National Coordinator in your country now!The countries that have announced their participation in BISC-E 2025 are shown below and there you can find the coordinates of the respective National Coordinators. New participating countries will appear soon. The national student team winners from the national BISC-Es will participate in the European final of BISC-E 2025 in Autumn 2025.
BIC provides a central role in mobilising country participation, acting as contact point for the BISC-E coordinating organisation and organising and co-financing the European finals where the national winners compete. BIC also funds the prize awards and provides additional benefits to the winning team.
BISC-E offers students opportunities to interact with actors in the bio-based industry throughout Europe. This can be done during preparation of business cases, in interaction with jury members at the national and the European finals and associated networking events. These interactions can possibly lead to further relationships between students and the industry, including employment.
Competition prizes
- 1 year free BIC membership as an industry member. This offers access to the full network of industry members, and involvement in the preparation of the Annual Work Programme 2026 of the partnership between BIC and the European Commission (Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking – CBE JU).
- 1 year free BIC ‘Associate Member’ membership for the supporting/host university of the winning student team. This offers networking opportunities with all universities, RTOs, and associations that are BIC members.
- The winning team and its project will be taken up in BIC’s newsletter and on BIC’s website. This offers the opportunity to update progress of the project and attract further attention.
- Articles on the winning team and its project in international magazines that BIC works with. This will provide exposure to the broad bio-based sector and the European Commission.
- Guided support by BIC staff during the 1 year membership.
Competition details
- November 2024 – mid-January 2025: Student teams can submit ‘interest to register’ to the National Coordinator.
- Mid-January 2025 – mid-February 2025: Student teams to submit official registration to the National Coordinator.
- Mid-February 2025 – end of June 2025: Run and complete National BISC-E competitions throughout Europe.
- 15 July 2025 latest: Submit national winners and final dossiers (business cases and proposed solutions) to the the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC).
- September 2025 – October 2025: BISC-E 2025 European final (see below).
The national target dates will be set by the National Coordinator in each country.
The European final will proceed in two rounds in September – October 2025. In the first round, all national winning student teams pitch their business case and solution to a panel of academia experts. The panel evaluates the proposals on innovativeness, sustainability impact, technical feasibility, and economic viability. The panel also values the team’s pitching skills and its interaction during the subsequent Q&A. The top-5 student teams proceed to the final round to pitch their case and solution to industry experts who judge the proposals on the same criteria, with a focus on scalability and business potential. The video pitch of the top -5 teams will be judged and scored online by all BIC industry members. The combined scores from the first and second rounds determine the European winners of BISC-E 2025.
All student teams going into the first round will receive professional training on making an effective pitch. The top-5 student teams proceeding to the final round will receive in addition professional training on making a video to present their innovative proposal. All videos will be uploaded on the BIC website.
Countries participating in BISC-E
University of Ghent
University of Sarajevo
Agriculture University Plodiv
University of Osijek
Josip Juraj Strossmayer
Mendel University
Estonian University of Life Sciences
University of Hohenheim
National Technical University of Athens
Debrecen University
The Agricultural University of Iceland
Munster Technology University
University of Pisa
Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry
Lithuanian Biotechnology Association
CoE MNExT - WUR
Łukasiewicz – Automotive Industry Institute
University of Agricultural Sciences & Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca
Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Štajerska with the University of Ljubljana
University of Almeria
University of Borås
