Exploration Ticket
Up to €5,000 to explore innovative ideas, discover opportunities, and develop innovation skills at an early stage.
What is an exploration Ticket?
The Exploration Ticket supports everyone who wants to investigate an innovative idea before moving into prototyping or startup development. It provides financial support and creative freedom to test assumptions, explore opportunities, build networks, and strengthen innovation skills.
Explore Opportunities
Understand users, markets and societal needs
Build Knowledge
Research technologies, trends, and innovation potential.
Prepare the next step
Generate evidence for future prototyping and transfer funding.
What can be funded?
Funding can be used to support a wide range of innovation-related activities, including but not limited to:
- Customer Discovery
- Market Validation
- Prototype Development
- Technical testing
- Software & AI Tools
- Materials & Equipment
- Training & Events
- Expert Support
Who can apply?
The Exploration Ticket is open to students, researchers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who has identified an opportunity for innovation with potential for development and is affiliated or associated with Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena (EAH), Jena University Hospital (UKJ), a local research institute, or a Jena-based company.
No prototype, startup, or prior experience is required. If you meet the eligibility criteria above, all you need to get started is curiosity, motivation, and an idea worth exploring.
How does it work?
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1 — Apply
Submit your Application.
2 — Explore
Investigate your idea and gather evidence
3 — Report
Submit a short final report
4 — Level up
Continue with further innovaiton support.
FAQ
Need more Information? Find answers here:
Please contact our team before submitting an application. We will check whether the funding might affect each other.
Please contact our team before submitting an application. We will discuss your situation and assess whether you may still be eligible for the Exploration Ticket.
The standard duration is between 3 and 6 months. Extensions may be possible in justified cases.
Yes. The date in the application is the planned start date. If you need to start later, please let us know so we can update your application and agree on a new start date.
If you finish the exploration earlier, please inform the responsible Innovation Scout as soon as possible. You can then submit your Final Report once all planned activities are completed. The project can be closed before the originally stated end date.
Applications are internally evaluated based on their innovation potential, understanding of the problem, Quality of the Exploration Plan, Motivation and Commitment of the applicant(s) and Strategic fit with JENAINNOVATION.
Applicants are expected to carry out the proposed exploration activities and submit a Final Report at the end of the funding period.
Yes. You may submit more than one idea. However, each idea requires a separate application and will be evaluated independently.
Yes. We encourage you to improve your application and sharpen your idea based on our feedback if your previous application was not succesful.
Application and Submission
- Apply here
- Submit final report
What’s next?
Your exploration doesn’t have to stop here. If you’ve validated key assumptions, identified a promising opportunity, or are ready to take the next step, check out our follow-up funding opportunities.
- Prototyping Ticket (coming soon)
- Startup Ticket (coming soon)