“We were very impressed by both their idea and their enthusiasm. The world really needs their product. It is scalable and has a huge potential,” says Anne-Grete Ellingsen, CEO of GCE NODE and member of the Innovation Award jury.
What the winning idea is, has yet to be made public.
Based on a written description of business ideas, a total of five student groups were pre-selected to pitch their ideas before the jury. Each group was given five minutes for a presentation and five minutes for answering questions from the jury.
Some very clearly nervous. While used to giving presentations before their peers, very few had given presentations before a jury that would go on to present a check of 30,000 NOK to the best group.
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“It was very different from other presentations, but we have had a lot of fun preparing for it,” says Margrethe Clüver. She was part of the only all-female group invited to pitch an idea for the jury.
The project, Safewater, aims to develop and manufacture a two-step procedure for purifying water. Built in to a product, perhaps in the shape of a straw, the idea is that the procedure will transform dirty water to drinking water within seconds.
“With the help of a simple and affordable product, our goal is to utilize new technology to find ways to provide pure water to the world,” says Marie Fiane-Mo.
The Innovation Award jury included Tone Nævestad (DNB, chair), Anne-Grete Ellingsen (GCE NODE), Sharron Moti (Lyse), Tor Helge Aas (The School of Business and Law at the University of Agder) and Rune Melberg (Sparebank 1 SR-Bank).
