About the Innovation Award

About the Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award

The Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award (AmSIA) is the Amsterdam competition for innovative ideas with a societal and/or commercial impact. The Award makes valuable ideas based on scientific research visible. Since its launch, the Award has generated more than 400 innovative, bright and applicable ideas. Many of these have resulted in concrete applications and some even formed the basis for new businesses.

History
The Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award has its origin in 2005 at the Science Park. Walter Hoogland (UvA) initiated a competition for new ideas. When he retired as dean of the Faculty of Science, The Walter Hoogland Fund had been formed of which the revenues were used to stimulate new ideas and entrepreneurial initiatives. This is the start of the Science Park New Ideas Prize for which the fund’s revenues were used as prize money. The Knowledge Transfer Office, later IXA, organized the competition.

Since 2012, several Amsterdam knowledge institutions have joined this prize and it has now grown to become an innovation prize that is open to researchers and students from all Amsterdam universities, universities of applied sciences and institutes. IXA, the Knowledge Transfer Offices of Amsterdam UMC, UvA, HvA and VU, have been organizing this annual Award ever since.

Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA)
The Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award is organized by IXA, the joint knowledge transfer office of Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). The City of Amsterdam fully endorses this innovation award for the city of Amsterdam.