Climate-KIC Master label program
Industrial Ecology students that are interested in learning about entrepreneurship and climate change can apply for the Climate-KIC Master label program. In parallel to their masters Label students attend a series of thought provoking seminars and follow courses on climate change and innovation. Additionally, they have the chance to study at another university or to intern at a company. Finally, the students write their thesis on a topic related to climate change and entrepreneurship and participate in the Journey a 5 week climate innovation summer school. Margot is a Master-Label student that participated in the Journey past summer.
You are a student of the Climate-KIC Master label. How is your experience so far?
The Master label program has been my favorite part of my master degree. I got to hear a lot of lectures from other universities and got to meet great people from all over Europe. By the summer school and seminars the program offers great way of sharing experiences and knowledge. It is also a great way to see the practical side of Industrial Ecology. The program blends in perfectly with what we learn during our Masters. Climate-KIC offers the opportunity to apply this knowledge into developing a business plan.
One part of the Master Label program is the Journey. Can you tell a bit more about the Journey?
It is basically a 5-week traveling summer school where you gain the practical tools and knowledge to start your own sustainable business. You are together with 40 participants and 2 coaches that you travel with for 5 weeks to 3 different locations. We were Journey number 10. We started in Hamburg, where we learnt about different problems connected to Climate Change such as land use change and resource depletion. This gave an impression of the areas where we could make an impact.
After two weeks in Hamburg we travelled with the ferry to Helsinki. At the University of Helsinki, we had business lectures about how to develop your idea into a start-up. Next to that, we made groups of 4-5 people. With this group we decided on our business project. Working on the project was probably the most intense part of the five weeks. We worked pretty long every day to create a business plan. During the process we got a lot of feedback and support. It is very interesting to see how you can really fall in love with the project you create. The whole process definitely made us want to continue the project after the summer school.
The last week we spent in Malta, where another group, Journey 9, joined us. In this week we finalized our written business plan and prepared our pitch. At the end, we pitched the idea in front of 80 people and a jury.
I really enjoyed the Journey, because you meet people from all over Europe with very different backgrounds. Working in these interdisciplinary teams on climate change issues brought out the potential of different disciplines. Also, by having people from different countries in your team you get different perspectives on climate change. It was very interesting to bring all this knowledge together and develop a business plan.
I was really lucky with the other Journey participants, because we developed a great friendship over the 5 weeks. When you hear summer school it always sounds like you have to study all summer, which is also true, but at the same time you experience so much! I think this was one of the best summers of my life. I can definitely recommend to join the Journey.
What kind of business idea did your group develop?
We developed a plan to make agriculture more sustainable and stop land use change by developing an aquaponics system. The aquaponics system is a closed system based on plants together with fish. The waste of fish is reused as nutrients that is taken up by the plants. The plants in their turn clean the water that goes back to the fish. It is supposed to be a closed cycle, so you don’t need to add any nutrients or chemicals to grow your plants. We designed a small scale aquaponics system that can be used in houses or offices. It would allow people from urban areas to grow fresh food themselves even if they do not have a garden or a balcony. Additionally, we looked into sustainable materials and keeping the energy use for the system as low as possible.
Are you going to take your plan forward?
Yes, we actually want to continue with our plan! It is a bit challenging right now because we still have to finish our masters. I really hope that the motivation of the summer school stays until we actually have the chance to work on it together, because we all live in different countries. At the moment, we are applying for the accelerator program in Leiden and The Hague. Now every one of us is graduating and in September the plan is to actually start and continue our business idea!
Are you interested in participating in the Journey or the Climate-KIC MasterLabel program? More information can be found via:
