Paludi Challenge

Unlocking the Potential of Paludiculture Biomass

©  Justus de Cuveland / imageBROKER / mauritius images

Turn underutilized biomass into real-world applications.

Are you ready to turn sustainability challenges into real-world impact?
Join our Innovation Challenge to develop solutions that unlock the value of paludiculture feedstocks.

We are looking for innovative, application-oriented solutions. Your mission is to develop and validate pathways to convert paludiculture biomass and side streams into market-ready materials, chemicals, or processes. We invite researchers, students, and early-stage teams to participate. We aim to bring creative minds together to address a critical sustainability challenge.

Our Partners

The Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC) is an interdisciplinary hub connecting science, policy, and practice in peatland and climate research. It promotes paludiculture as an innovative solution to reduce CO₂ emissions while enabling sustainable land use. The University of Greifswald, partner in the GMC, is one of the leading research institutions in peatland science including paludiculture. It develops science-based approaches for restoration and sustainable use of rewetted peatlands, integrating ecological insights with economic and policy-oriented solutions.

The Startup Labor Schwedt is an innovation hub connecting startups, industry, and research to scale sustainable industrial solutions. It supports the development and real-world application of climate-friendly technologies, driving the transition to a circular and climate-neutral industry.

This is where you come in.

• Challenge Details

  But what exactly is paludiculture—and why does it matter?

  Paludiculture means using wet or rewetted peatlands for farming or forestry. This way, the peatland stays healthy and can continue to store CO₂, which is good for the climate.

  It also creates new opportunities to make climate-friendly land use economically viable.

  What is the problem right now?

  Biomass from paludiculture currently has difficulty competing with other raw materials.

  The main challenges are:

  • There are only a few ways to process it on a large scale
  • There is strong competition from existing materials
  • The quality of the biomass is not always consistent
  • There is low market demand and uncertain investment

  What is the Paludi Challenge?

  The Paludi Challenge is an initiative that looks for new ideas and solutions.

  The goal is to make paludiculture biomass economically useful.

  A key focus is to develop processes that turn biomass and/or its byproducts into sellable products, such as chemicals, materials, or industrial processes.

  What kind of ideas are they looking for?

  The challenge is open and flexible – there is no single fixed solution.

  Possible ideas include:

  • Development of materials, additives, or packaging
  • Use of byproducts (e.g. lignin or hemicellulose)
  • New processes or pre-treatment methods to improve usage
  • Solutions for technical problems in processing
  
  Wildcards are welcome.

What we offer

Training: Receive hands-on training in key areas such as Life Cycle Assessment, business modelling, and pitching.

Industry Collaboration: Join us on a tour of a real chemical facility, go behind the scenes, and connect with industry experts. Gain practical insights and develop solutions with real-world impact.

Rapid Idea Validation: Use the Challenge to understand and validate the potential of your ideas in a short cycle.

Infrastructure & Equipment: Develop, test, and prototype your ideas in laboratories and lab devices made available by greenCHEM.

Community: Expand your network and get in contact with a diverse ecosystem.

Further Support: Receive potential access to funding opportunities or validation/pilot projects.

Timeline

iStock by Getty Images

Phase 0 – Qualification

April 30— Challenge launch & start of the application phase

• May 30 — Application deadline

• First week of June — Selection and announcement of finalists

Phase 1 – Elaboration

• June 8 — Kick-off event, introduction to the challenge & matchmaking session

• June 15 — Workshop: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)*

• June 23 — Workshop: Business Model Canvas (BMC)

• July 6 — Industry excursion*

• July 13 — Mentoring Session I*

• July 20 — Pitching workshop

• July 30, 2026 — Phase 1 Pitch Day & selection of the two winning teams

Phase 2 – Lab Phase

• Beginning of August — Start of the lab phase*

• End of August — Mentoring Session II*

• End of September — End of the lab phase & Final Pitch Day*

* Dates to be confirmed.

Application Deadline: 30th of May, 2026

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Application Deadline: 30th of May, 2026 〰️

Q&A

• Why should I join?

  1. You want to put your ideas to the test and contribute to making the industry more sustainable

  2. You want to expand your network and meet people from industry

  3. You want to do something that matters with your green chemistry skills

• Who’s it for?

  This challenge is designed for:

  • PhD students & postdocs

  • Master students

  • Early-stage teams (not incorporated)

  • Individuals or interdisciplinary teams

  We aim to include people from all backgrounds to ensure an interdisciplinary challenge. You do not need any specific qualifications to participate.
  
  Eligibility: Applicants must be based in or near Berlin and able to attend the program in person on the scheduled dates. Additionally, applicants must be affiliated with one of the partner universities within the BUA.
  
  We can only provide lab access to individuals with prior laboratory experience. If you or your team do not meet this requirement, we will support you from the beginning by connecting you with interdisciplinary team members who have the necessary experience to enable lab work.

• How exactly does the challenge work in practice?

  To be considered, applicants must complete and submit the application form, including information about their background and a clear description of their idea, solution, or insights. Participants are also encouraged to support their submission with additional materials such as detailed concepts, videos, explanations, or references to relevant resources like peer-reviewed articles or patents. Submissions will be evaluated based on five key dimensions: market potential, technical feasibility, sustainability, innovation, and industrial relevance.
  
  The program unfolds in two interconnected phases that guide teams from idea development to hands-on validation.

  In Phase 1 — Elaboration, an open call leads to the selection of 5–7 teams, who then focus on developing and refining their ideas. Throughout this phase, participants receive mentoring, take part in workshops, and gain support in validating their concepts. The phase culminates in a pitch to a jury, where the top two teams are selected to move forward into Phase 2.

  Building on the outcomes of Phase 1, Phase 2 — Lab Work offers a more practical, experimentation-driven environment. The selected teams enter the lab to test and technically validate their approaches, continuously iterating with support from experts. The program concludes with a final pitch and award, showcasing the most promising solutions.
  
  Please note: We typically recommend to form teams with not more than four team members in the beginning. In addition, we strongly advise including a scientific supervisor or professor who can provide guidance throughout the entire challenge.
  
  All sessions in the first phase of the program will take place in person; online participation will not be available.
  
  

• What are the Terms and Conditions of the Open Innovation Challenge?

  You can find the Terms and Conditions here.

• How are intellectual property rights (IP) managed?

  All information about the IP conditions, you can find here.

• How does it work with lab space?

  greenCHEM will provide access to lab space and cover the costs associated with that for teams that require it. However, if your team doesn’t need a dedicated lab from greenCHEM, you may work in your current lab. In that case, we can cover some of the costs associated with participating in the challenge, even if we’re not the ones providing the lab.

• Does my idea need to fulfill all criteria at the moment of application?

  At the application stage, you do not need a fully developed solution.

  We are looking for:

  • A clear idea or concept

  • A strong hypothesis or approach

  • A convincing explanation of its potential

  Selected teams will further develop their solution during the program. Should your team be selected for the second phase of the challenge, you will have the opportunity to work in the lab and further develop your solution.

  And wildcard solutions are always welcome.

• What are possible approaches?

  Teams may focus on one (or combine) the following paths:
  Path A — Product-first / Market pull
  Investigate materials, additives, binders, coatings, composites, and packaging-related solutions based on paludi inputs that could enable future market applications.
  
  Path B — Side-stream conversion ( “leftover streams” )
  Secondary material streams can be repurposed for other products or processes. Develop approaches to upgrade side streams (e.g., hemicellulose- and lignin) into valuable chemical intermediates, materials, or precursors.

  Path C — Solve a bottleneck ( Fixing a technical process limitation)
  Develop a concept  for pre-treatment/ fractionation/ separation steps that enable better yields, purity or robustness for paludi utilization.

More Questions?

Join our Info Session on 19.05.26 at 2 PM. Ask your questions, gain deeper insights into the challenge, and get to know the team behind it.

If you can not make it to the Info session, Arni, our Open Innovation Manager, is happy to answer your questions.