The winners of this year’s Idea Competition have been chosen

After thorough deliberations by the jury with interesting discussions and comments, Idélab can now proudly present the winners of this year's Idea Competition.

Best IDEA – Michelle Vahlberg
Best INNOVATION – Ahmed Ibrahim
Best PITCH – Dahiana Cordero
Idélab’s WILDCARD – Mostafa Saleh

The Idea Competition is an annual innovation competition which is organised by Idélab, MDH’s business incubator. The competition is open to students, employees and researchers at MDH. Contestants compete with their best ideas – which can be about anything at all. Those who go through to the final round have the opportunity to pitch their idea digitally, in the form of a film, to a jury. The entries are then assessed according to the following categories: economic sustainability, competitiveness, societal benefit, the degree of innovativeness, market size and sustainability.

This year, the proposal from last year was implemented, which was to adjust and expand the winning categories. The categories that in previous years were the best idea and best pitch were expanded with a new category – best innovation.

“The need has been around for a long time as the breadth of the entries has required it,” says Anna Berg, Business Development Manager at Idélab and one of the jury members of the Idea Competition.

The previous award "Ambassador of the Year" was replaced with the award "Idélab’s Wildcard". In total, four prizes are now awarded: Best Idea, Best Innovation, Best Pitch and Idélab’s Wildcard.

The pandemic has brought about not only challenges but also opportunities. For the Idea Competition, this has meant that the conditions have changed regarding the pitch, which was previously conducted live, but the main changes have been regarding the award ceremony. Idélab renews and adapts to stay at the forefront. Therefore, the award ceremony was held this year, just like last year, on a smaller scale where the winners received their prizes consisting of SEK 40,000 in pre-study funds from Almi Mälardalen. The prizes in the different categories are sponsored by Almi Mälardalen, Brita and Otto Larsson's Memorial Fund, Automation Region and Profeel.

The 2021 Jury for Idélab’s Idea Competition are:
Anna Berg – Business Development Manager at Idélab
Helena Jerregård – Deputy Vice-Chancellor at MDH
Gustavo Santoyo – Advisor at Almi Mälardalen
Anna Harryson – Founder of Profengy
Jens Carlberg – Head of Business Development from Eskilstuna Municipality, private sector
Andreas Komada – CEO Easy Dist Sweden AB

Idélab, together with the jury, offer all the winners our heartfelt congratulations!