From Lab to Market Challenge
CHEManager Public Voting
You Decide Who Goes to Market
The From Lab to Market Challenge is where scientific research meets real-world impact. Researchers from across Germany pitched their boldest ideas for transforming the chemical industry. A jury has selected the finalists. Now public voting determines who takes home the audience prize at the Grand Award Event on 25 June 2026.
Read each team's pitch, then cast your vote. Voting is open 1–20 June 2026. One vote per person — duplicate votes will be removed.
Learn more about the From Lab to Market Challenge
About the Organizers
The From Lab to Market Challenge is run by four organizations that share one goal: closing the gap between research and market.
Chemstars
Chemstars is a public–private partnership building the chemical innovation ecosystem that enables effective collaboration between industry and startups. We partner with market-leading companies, visionary founders and investors to drive innovation and strengthen the resilience of our industry. Chemstars is the place where research turns into products and services, entrepreneurs create impact and collaborations between established and startups emerge.
Our mission is twofold: We support founders who contribute to the future competitiveness and transformation of the chemical sector, while helping established companies successfully collaborate with startups through matchmaking, innovation programs, and cultural change initiatives.
To date, Chemstars has helped to incorporate 9 startups through the From Lab to Market Challenge and has supported 70+ startups in its startup support program, which have raised more than EUR 250 million in funding. As a “reaction space” for chemistry, Chemstars actively shapes the future role of the chemical industry.
Forum Rathenau e.V.
Forum Rathenau e.V. supports the transformation process in the Central German Mining Region from its base in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. The project, founded in 2019, promotes the innovations of the carbon circular economy. Since 2023, it has been funded under the STARK program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. On the path toward a post-fossil, sustainable carbon competence cluster in Saxony-Anhalt, the research staff focus on school education, develop lifelong learning formats, support business transformations and start-ups, and communicate the opportunities of the post-fossil circular economy through various communication formats.
GreenChem
GreenChem is Berlin’s innovation ecosystem for green chemistry, dedicated to accelerating the transformation of the chemical industry toward sustainability and circularity. Bringing together universities, startups, industry, and public stakeholders, GreenChem fosters the transfer of cutting-edge research into scalable real-world solutions.
Through startup support, innovation programs, technology transfer, validation infrastructure, and industry collaboration, GreenChem enables the development and implementation of sustainable chemical technologies and circular business models.
Based in Berlin — one of Europe’s leading science and startup hubs — GreenChem connects scientific excellence with entrepreneurship to help shape the future of sustainable chemistry.
Koala
Koala supports groundbreaking research based on the principles of Green Chemistry and accompanies scientists in transforming their research projects into sustainable business models. Guided by our mission, “Catalyzing your innovation journey,” we bridge academic research and real-world impact through structured support, entrepreneurial training, mentoring, and access to a strong science – industry – startup network. We support scientists and early-stage spin-off teams through workshops, coaching, and partner access to enable scalable ventures in the chemical industry.
One of our key offerings is the QuinCAT Incubator at ITMC, RWTH, with over 300 m² of lab and office space. It provides an ideal environment for spin-off teams to develop ideas from proof-of-concept to first product. The incubator combines fully equipped chemical laboratories, modern analytical tools, and integrated safety infrastructure. On-site expert mentoring supports teams in hands-on R&D and continuous development.
Koala is a joint project of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion and RWTH Aachen University, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
TUM Venture Labs
TUM Venture Labs is a non-profit joint initiative of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and UnternehmerTUM, Europe's largest entrepreneurship center. Its mission: turning world-class research into scalable, market-ready companies. Across 12 deep-tech and life science domains, TUM Venture Labs forms a network of specialized incubators fostering innovation in emerging fields, with support throughout the early lifecycle, from research idea generation to securing seed capital.
The Chem/Biosystems Lab on TUM's Campus in Garching is Bavaria's leading incubator for chemistry-driven startups, with the ambition to become Europe's reference point for ventures in drug design, catalysis, and energy storage. Through the integrated Battery Start-Up Incubator (BaStI), the lab supports founders across the full battery value chain, from raw materials to circular economy solutions.
Founders, researchers, and students benefit from state-of-the-art chemistry labs, co-working spaces, research-to-market training, and dedicated support in business development, IP strategy, and funding. With an extensive network of industry leaders, including partners such as Wacker Chemie and close ties to policymakers, the Chem/Biosystems Lab offers a dynamic environment for turning pioneering research into market-ready solutions.