
Compete for the
Best Business Ideas
in Biotech & Medtech!
aws BoB is a prestigious international competition in life sciences, designed to transform groundbreaking ideas into successful innovations. In 2025, BoB will celebrate its 11th round in a special 25th anniversary edition!
Organized by aws Life Science Austria (LISA), a program of Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws), on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy (BMAW), BoB offers a unique platform for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Participants will receive valuable feedback on their business ideas from experts with extensive knowledge in life sciences, patents, finance, and entrepreneurship. Finalists in each category will benefit from individual coaching to prepare for their final pitch in front of our top-class jury.
BoB also provides participants with high visibility within the life science community and valuable networking opportunities. All participants are invited to attend the exclusive awards ceremony in Vienna.
BoB is open to students, researchers, and teams or individuals from around the world who aim to turn their ideas into businesses, as well as young start-ups up to 3 years old (founded after March 31, 2022).
In 2025, the BoB will be awarded across four equal categories:
The ideator categories are for projects in the pre-foundation phase, while the start-up categories are for young companies up to three years old.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- Inspiring Life Science Entrepreneurs: Motivating scientists and other creative individuals in the life sciences to pursue entrepreneurship.
- Transforming Innovations: Supporting participants in developing life science innovations into professional business concepts and presentations through comprehensive, personalized coaching.
- Visibility and Networking: Offering high visibility for winners within the life science community and valuable networking opportunities for all participants.
- Promoting Commercialization: Encouraging the commercial application of research-driven scientific innovations.
Positioning Austria as a Life Science Hub: Strengthening Austria’s reputation as a premier incubator for life science businesses.
Students, post-graduates, experienced scientists, and other creative individuals ready to transform a promising life science innovation into a business are encouraged to apply. BoB is open to individuals and teams from any country, with no differentiation in evaluation between Austrian and non-Austrian participants. All are equally welcome.
To be successful, you need a well-developed business idea that represents an innovation (not a me-too product).
Entities already incorporated are eligible as long as they were founded after March 31, 2022.
This competition encompasses the following areas in life sciences:
BioTech:
- Biopharmaceutical Biotechnology: Focuses on the development and production of medicines and therapeutic products for humans and animals.
- Agricultural and Plant Biotechnology as well as Marine Biotechnology: Involves the application of biotechnological processes in agriculture, plant breeding, and marine environments to enhance agricultural yields or utilize marine resources.
- Industrial Biotechnology: Refers to the use of cells or cell components (such as enzymes) for the production of industrial products, such as chemicals, food, or biofuels.
MedTech:
- Diagnostic tools and technologies (e.g., X-Ray, NMR, urea tests, allergy tests, blood pressure measuring tools etc.)
- Therapeutic tools and technologies (e.g., implants, prostheses, rehabilitation tools, orthopedic tools, dialysis technology, cryotherapy etc.)
- Medical Tools (e.g., disposable gloves, syringe, incontinence aids, bandaging material etc.)
- Laboratory-, ambulance-, hospital furniture und technology (e.g., beds, mattresses, textiles, tables, illumination etc.)
Digital Health and Services (e.g., telemedicine, digital health applications such as apps, e-health solutions etc.)
Please have a look at the BoB schedule:
April 1 - June 13, 2025:
Register on our website, prepare your application documents, and submit your pitch deck by June 13, 2025. After your registration, you will get access to online training.
June 16 - August 29, 2025:
A team of evaluators will review all submissions and select the top three from each category (12 teams in total).
September 3, 2025:
The 12 finalists will be announced. Finalists will have the opportunity to refine their pitch decks with feedback from the evaluators.
September 17-18, 2025:
Finalists are invited to a two-day coaching event in Vienna, including a video interview. Following the event, finalists may further refine their pitches in preparation for the jury meeting. All finalists will be introduced on social media.
October 13, 2025:
Present your business idea live to the BoB jury in Vienna.
October 14, 2025:
Join us in celebrating the winners of BoB Best of Biotech 2025 at the award ceremony in Vienna. The winning teams will receive a money prize of 8,000 € and a free ticket for an international matchmaking event. Furthermore, all winners will be announced in a press release, on the BoB website and on social media.
If your project is relatively young and you haven't founded a start-up yet, the Ideator category is the right choice for you.
If you've already established a company (with a founding date after March 31, 2022), then the Start-up category is perfect for you.
If you're uncertain about whether to apply for BioTech or MedTech, please refer to the definitions in question no. 3.
Entries must be submitted on the competition website in either German or English.
After registering, contestants can log in to access the online submission tool (aws Funding Manager/FÖMA).
Prepare to submit a commented pitch deck as a document of up to 15 pages in PowerPoint or PDF format. The following information should be included:
- Problem Statement
- Solution and Technology
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
- Business Model
- Target Market and Opportunity
- Competition
- Protection of the Idea (IP)
- Team
- Status and Milestones
- Roadmap (3-5 years)
- Costs & Financials
- Contact
- Optional: Appendix
Please note that your project will be evaluated solely based on the document you submit. In the first phase of the competition, you will not have the opportunity to present your pitch in person. Therefore, we strongly recommend adding comments to each slide to provide more detailed explanations of each section of your concept.
In addition to the content, the formal quality of the business idea will also be assessed. The formal criteria are length (maximum of 15 slides/pages), structure as outlined above, plausibility, clarity, depth, completeness, and the ease of understanding of the provided explanations.
A pitch deck template is available for download here.
For your financial planning, we recommend using the following support tool: Plan4You
If your project ranks among the top three in your category, you should be prepared to travel to Vienna to personally present your business project to the jury on October 13, 2024. While attendance at the award ceremony the following day is optional, it is highly recommended!
Participation in the coaching days is also highly encouraged, though it is not a mandatory requirement for competition entry.
Participation in the competition and all related activities is free; however, participants are responsible for covering their own travel and lodging costs.
Apart from a brief project description that is non-confidential, aws guarantees that all data received from participants will be treated with strict confidentiality.
External experts, evaluators, and jury members will all sign a confidentiality agreement.
With aws Preseed | Seedfinancing, we support and finance projects from the idea to the market launch that aim to make a positive contribution to social or ecological added value. Gaps in the funding of deep tech start-ups that arise during the transition from research to commercialization can also be closed. The common goal is the sustainable establishment of competitive, economically independent, innovative, technology- or impact-oriented companies.
The business promotion programme aws Preseed | Seed Financing is offered in the programme lines “Innovative Solutions” and “Deep Tech”. They differ in terms of the funding requirements and funding amounts, among other things. Tailored to the company phases, aws can support companies in the early phase with the Preseed module and companies up to 5 years old with the Seed Financing module for each programme line.