Idea Challenge: Tinnitracks wins in category Health & Wellbeing

A team of innovators from Germany have claimed the top prize of €40,000 as winners of the EIT ICT Labs Idea Challenge 2014 in the category Health & Wellbeing. Tinnitracks won with their idea proposal of a mobile adaption of the Tinnitracks technology that treats tinnitus with music. The Idea Challenge is a EU wide contest which challenges early stage startups and innovators with entrepreneurial spirit to develop ideas in the tech trend areas Health & Wellbeing, Future Cloud, Smart Spaces, Cyber Physical Systems, Smart Energy Systems, Urban Life & Mobility, Internet of Things and Cyber Security & Privacy

The winners were announced during an Awards’s ceremony at the Intramural Care Innovations for Extramural Care Symposium in Eindhoven on 21 May 2014.

The winning team is comprised of Joerg Land, Matthias Lanz and Adrian Noetzel.

The second prize of 25,000 Euro went to the team of Johann Huber, Christopher Lorenz and Peter Schneider from SOMA Analytics. The UK startup has developed a patent pending technology that is able to measure stress-related changes in behaviour, visualize them to the user and provide personalized interventions to help prevent harmful conditions.

Finally, the startup Horus from Italy won the third prize of 15,000 with their proposal for a small assistive device that fits on glasses and works as a personal assistant for blind and visually impaired people.

The first wave of the competition saw over 300 teams from around the EU submit a proposal responding to one of eight topics set out by EIT ICT Labs. The thematic and business development experts Jean Gelissen, Action Line Leader for Health & Wellbeing, Patrick Strating, Eindhoven Node Director, Fabio Carati, Business Development Accelerator Trento Node, as well as Carla Scholten, Director of Embedded Fitness, Bert Gyselinckx, Managing Director at Holst Centre and Guido Hegener, partner at X Health, evaluated the submissions for the novelty and uniqueness of the idea, the market and internationalization potential, the quality of the team, and the technological feasibility.

Jean Gelissen said: "We were very pleased with the high number of high quality submissions. EIT ICT Labs network is open for all the finalists.”

Patrick Starting added: “There is so much potential for innovative ideas that can improve the quality of life. Almost all ideas that were submitted in the category Health and Wellbeing could make it to the market.”

In addition to the prize money all winners now look forward to six months office space at one of EIT ICT Labs Co-Location Centres, mentoring and coaching support from the Business Development Accelerator as well as the invaluable opportunity to become part of the biggest innovation network in Europe with over 120 partners.