Innovators Connect – Tandem 2025 brings together 30 selected participants – 15 each from India and Germany – who will ideally collaborate in bilateral teams to generate innovative ideas, undergo training for bringing research ideas to market and get exposure to start-up and innovation ecosystems of India and Germany. The programme will include design thinking workshops, information sessions, mentoring, networking sessions, lab visits and more.
At the end of the programme, all teams will present the ideas they have worked on, to a jury comprising of start-up founders, industry experts and researchers. The winning team(s) get the opportunity (financially supported) to meet in Germany in 2026 to work on their ideas and participate in a leading start-up conference in Germany. Teams will get further mentoring and support to raise grants for product development from incubators in India and Germany.
Applicants from India must either be PhD canidates (ongoing or completed) or Postdocs (PhD not older than four years) with a lab-to-market idea and registered (full time) at any of the partner institutions of the programme. Alternatively, early-stage start-up founders whose companies have been incorporated for less than two years, holding at least a bachelor’s degree (ideally a master’s), and who are incubated onsite at a partner institution, are also eligible.
Applicants from Germany must similarly be PhD candidates (ongoing or completed) or Postdocs (PhD not older than four years) with a lab-to-market idea and currently affiliated with a university, university of applied sciences, or a research institution in Germany. Early-stage start-up founders or team members whose start-ups were founded no more than two years ago, and who hold at least a bachelor’s degree (ideally a master’s), are also eligible if they are affiliated with a university, university of applied sciences or a research institution in Germany.
Participants should have an academic or research background in fields such as Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Materials Science, Electronics and Telecommunications, Computer Science, Economics or Business Management. Their lab-to-market ideas, start-up ideas, or applied research should focus on areas including Biotechnology, Digital Healthcare Technology, Medical Technology, Antimicrobial Resistance and Drug Discovery, Clean or Green Technology, Marine Technology, Agricultural or Food Technology, Mobility, Space Technology, or Semiconductors.
The application deadline is 13. July 2025. The programme is supported by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt).
