Flake ice for cooling dough, cracked and dented eggs at egg-dyeing facilities, excessive plastic supply chains, or a range of rice products with a detrimental climate impact: these are not classroom exercises, but rather real-world problems faced by seven companies in the food industry. In autumn 2024, as part of the inaugural pioneer Innovation Challenge organised by foodward and the ZHAW entrepreneurship team, these challenges were openly presented by Bertschi Bäckerei, Biotta, EiCO frigemo, Emmi, LILY's, Migros Zurich and Kündig.
Five workshops leading up to pitch night
Over the course of five workshops covering ideation, prototyping and implementation, eight start-up teams, two engineering teams and six student teams from various universities developed their solutions further. Throughout the process, they were supported by coaches and experts from the worlds of industry and academia. Each team was also given the opportunity to visit the commissioning company and apply for up to CHF 2,000 towards the cost of materials. On 28 November, pitch night took place in front of the decision-makers from the very companies that had posed the challenges.
Deborah Ayeni
Graduate of the MSc in Food and Beverage Innovation, ZHAW School of Life Sciences and Facility Management
“Anything is possible. You simply have to take the first step. That first big step. Once you do, the path becomes clearer and clearer the further you go.”
A new team and limited resources
Several participants regarded the greatest challenge not as the technical task itself, but simply getting started. This involved working with people from different disciplines whom they had never met before and coming up with a robust solution despite tight deadlines and limited infrastructure.
Follow-up projects instead of a finish line
The first edition has already led to concrete follow-up projects that extend far beyond the pitch event itself. Yet regardless of whether a project ended with the pitch or continued afterwards, all participants learned what it means to apply entrepreneurial thinking and action using real-world challenges from the private sector. It is an experience that reaches far beyond what can be taught in a lecture theatre.
