Application start for the Deep Tech Award 2024

Fraunhofer IPK expert Dr. Gregor Thiele is a member of the jury for this year's Deep Tech Award. The Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises has been awarding the prize to Berlin companies and start-ups since 2015.

Proposals for the Deep Tech Award 2024 can now be submitted. We are looking for application-oriented and tried-and-tested software or hardware developments with a high level of innovation and great market potential. The awards will be presented in five categories. The competition aims to strengthen Berlin's growing deep tech sector and increase the visibility of innovations "Made in Berlin". This is the ninth time that the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises has organized the competition, which is endowed with a total of 50,000 euros. Both self-applications and nominations are possible. The deadline for submissions is April 26, 2024.

The Deep Tech Award will be presented in 2024 in the following categories:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Photonics and Quantum Technologies
  • Robotics
  • Sustainable and Social Impact
  • Web3.0 – DLT, Blockchain, NFT and Metaverse

For each category, a "Deep Tech Star" is selected by an independent jury of experts who evaluate the submissions according to their degree of innovation and market potential. This year, Dr. Gregor Thiele from Fraunhofer IPK is one of them. He has been working on innovations in automation technology and robotics since 2011, with a focus on industrial energy management. In 2022, he completed his doctorate on the topic of optimizing the operation of technical supply systems and was awarded the Manfred Hirschvogel Prize for the best dissertation of the year at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at TU Berlin. He and his team are researching how repetitive, ergonomically harmful or unhealthy activities can be improved through the use of creative solutions with and without robots. Thiele is convinced that targeted operational optimization makes industrial production more energy-efficient and resource-saving: "Conventional automation requires structured environments and reproducible tasks. At Fraunhofer IPK, we are trying to overcome these limits with innovative robotics – whether for cable assembly in factories, for material handling on construction sites or for automated harvesting of crops."

The winners of the Deep Tech Award 2024 will be announced at the award ceremony on July 11 and will each receive prize money of 10,000 euros.