The jury assessed the projects on four key criteria: 

• Business Idea: Originality, innovation, potential impact, market relevance, and alignment with entrepreneurial thinking. 

• Feasibility and Sustainability: Technical, financial, and organisational practicality, along with long-term viability and consideration of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. 

• Pitch Quality: Structure, clarity, persuasiveness, and effective communication of the project’s vision.  

• Response to Jury Questions: Depth, transparency, and the ability to respond clearly under pressure. 

 

Strand 1: Student Projects and Young Startups 

Hungary-based The Speaking Collar System won with their non-invasive hearing aid for senior dogs. Founded by Kinga G. Tóth and Gábor Kusper at ELTE, the device restores communication between pets and their owners by playing the owner’s voice, adjusted to a frequency the dog can still hear, through a smart collar via an app on the owner’s phone. The team’s approach combines tech innovation with a clear market strategy and won praise for addressing a growing need in the pet health sector and for the quality of their pitch.

‘The Speaking Collar System addresses a major, unsolved problem in the common hearing loss of senior dogs that is not only detrimental to the wellbeing of the dogs and the sense of safety for humans, but undermines the magic bond between pets and owners,’ said co-founder Kinga Tóth said. ‘Our solution offers an affordable pathway to restoring the voice-enhanced bond. In addition, the Speaking Collar System is a promising technology that enables non-speaking deaf individuals to finally have assistance dogs, opening up unprecedented possibilities for communication and shared adventures.’ 

Other teams in this strand included: 

• Feanalytic (Åbo Akademi, Finland), which has developed a new diagnostic test to identify chronic gut diseases, in particular Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), more quickly and with less invasive methods than traditional diagnosis. 

• KLAO (University of Würzburg, Germany), the first AI-powered translator capable of generating certified Leichte Sprache (Germany’s Easy Read Language which is easily accessible to those with learning or language difficulties). 
• OIKOS GEN (University of Barcelona, Spain), which is developing compostable bioplastics from banana peel waste. 

 

Strand 2: Mature Startups 

turboTEM, a spin-out company from Trinity College Dublin, won in the Mature Startups category for their modular, retrofittable hardware upgrades for specialised transmission electron microscopes (TEMs). The company’s solutions allow research institutions to extend the lifespan of existing equipment, reducing capital spend on equipment and enabling faster scientific progress. Founded by Prof Lewys Jones, Dr Jonathan Peters and Fletcher Thompson, turboTEM has been recognised with numerous industry awards and is already in use at Sandia National Laboratories in the United States.  

Prof. Lewys Jones, CEO of turboTEM, said: ‘We are delighted to be a part of the innovation ecosystem in Ireland and across the EU network more widely. Winning this competition validates and solidifies our commitment to sustainable business strategy and design practices. We look forward to engaging further with the CHARM-EU international partners in the near future.’ 

Also competing in this strand were: 

• Angrolytics (Utrecht University, Netherlands), an AI application to help farmers manage their farms more easily. 

• Waterland (University of Montpellier, France), which is working to make water desalination more energy efficient. 

 

Supporting Student Innovation 

The CHARM-DEN event highlighted the diversity of student-led innovation across disciplines—from animal health and environmental science to advanced microscopy and sustainable agriculture. It also underscored the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and the potential of student entrepreneurship to address real-world challenges.