After working on our application for the EXIST Transfer of Research for several month, we have been invited to the Projektträger Jülich (PTJ) in Berlin to defend our application in front of a highly proficient jury of experts from different backgrounds.
One day later, we received the notification that our project proposal has been accepted by the jury and the funding for two years has been approved.
We started to work on the EXIST application together with the “Transfer- und Gründerzentrum” (TUGZ) in April. This application included detailed descriptions regarding our business idea, the team and networking partners, our innovation, the IP situation, research and development concept, a market analysis as well as a financial and milestone plan. Describing all these aspects in the necessary detail took the continuous engagement of all team members until we finally submitted about 130 pages by the end of June.A few weeks later, we have been invited to defend our application with a ten-minute presentation at the PTJ in Berlin. Supported by our mentor Prof. Michael Friebe, we went to Berlin and, subsequently to the presentation, faced a lot of critical questions by the highly proficient jury, which we could answer reasonably good. After the defense, we went to a nice bar in Berlin to celebrate this milestone with a few beers, before going back to Magdeburg.
After one day of waiting eagerly, we received the relieving message that our application has been accepted by the jury and we would receive the project funding for the next two years. We are looking forward to April 2o20, when we can officially start the project and work on creating a game-changing perception in minimally invasive surgery.