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 2024 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 2024 in September 2024.
BIC provides a central role in mobilising country participation, acting as contact point for the BISC-E coordinating organisation and financing and co-organising the European finals where the top student teams compete. BIC also funds the prize awards and provides additional benefits to the winning team.
BISC-E will offer student opportunities to interact with actors in the bio-based industry throughout Europe. This can be done during preparation of business cases. This interaction can possibly lead to further relationships between students and the industry.
Competition prizes
- 1 year free BIC ‘Full Member’ membership for the winning student team; this offers access to the full network of industry members, and involvement in the content planning for 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, associations who are BIC member.
- Winning team and its project 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 membership.
Competition details
- November 2023: Student teams can submit ‘interest to register’ to the National Coordinator
- Mid-January 2024: Student teams to submit official registration to the National Coordinator
- Mid-February 2024 – end of May 2024 Run and complete National BISC-E competitions throughout Europe
- 15 July 2024 latest: Submit national winners and final dossiers (business cases and proposed solutions) to the the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC)
- 6 September 2024: First round BISC-E 2024 European final
- 27 September 2024: Final round BISC-E 2024 European final
The actual deadlines will be set by the National Coordinator in each country.
The European final will have two rounds in September 2024. In the first round, all national student team winners present their business case to a panel of international experts. The panel judges the proposals, focusing on technological excellence. The top-5 student teams proceed to the final round to pitch their case to industry experts who judge the proposals focusing on scalability and economic feasibility. The combined scores from the panel of experts and industry determine the ultimate winners of BISC-E 2024.
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.
