9 June 2026
Madrid, June 2026 – Last week, Carlos III University of Madrid hosted the onsite phase of the YUFE Ideas Lab 2026, the grand finale of an international incubation program that began virtually. Throughout the semester, more than 30 participants developed their projects using agile methodologies such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and the EntreComp competence framework.
For the final phase, eighteen of these participants, coming from seven European universities (Bremen, Eastern Finland, Cyprus, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Maastricht, Rijeka, and Nicolaus Copernicus), attended to the on-site week in Madrid.
The event was opened by Carolina Marugán, Vice-Chancellor for Internationalization at UC3M. In addition to the activities held at the university, the participants enjoyed an innovation scavenger hunt through the city center and experienced a visit to the entrepreneurship ecosystem at South Summit Madrid.
International experts connected to the YUFE Alliance, including Tomi Tuovinen, Daria Glavan, Anastasia Constantinou, María José Herrero and Daniel Sonneveld, led specialized workshops covering topics such as Diversity (ED&I), Internationalization, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). They also mentored teamwork sessions that helped participants polish the final details of their project presentations. The week culminated with Demo Day, a pitch competition where the teams defended their proposals before a jury made up of the aforementioned collaborators.
The projects awarded for their viability and impact were:
- Innovation Award: Sharon Benny, for an ADCS software platform for CubeSats (nanosatellites).
- Social Impact Award: Dominic Apong, for an emergency alert device that operates without mobile coverage.
- Best Startup Idea Award: Jannis Whisehunt, Niranjan Kumar Nataranjan, and Tim Ferreira Friede, for a circular economy marketplace app designed for students living in university residences.
With this milestone, the YUFE Alliance consolidates its model of European higher education, transforming academic ideas into solutions with a sustainable global impact.
