Living Danube Challenge
EIT Ignite NEB Event 2025
Changemakers ignite nature stewardship in the Danube River Basin.
Are you a changemaker eager to apply creative, citizen-led, nature-based solutions to local challenges in the Danube River Basin? And do you want to pitch for a €10.000 development trajectory to transform your idea into a business, community initiative, or artistic intervention?
Join us for DANUBE4All x EIT Community NEB’s Living Danube Challenge!
The Living Danube Challenge is a distinctive, free programme offering training, creative exploration, idea development, networking, and the chance to bring your ideas to life. As a participant, you will:
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Partake in a dynamic series of 3 online trainings (17:00-18:00 CET on Wednesdays, September 24, October 1, and October 8) and a 2-day, in-person launchpad event at Vienna’s BOKU River Lab on October 10-11 2025.
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Receive training in nature-based solutions, environmental stewardship, citizen science methods, and social business strategy - including inspiring case studies from across the Danube River Basin and a keynote from Patagonia.
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Work with your team of (maximum) five individuals to respond to one of five Challenges centering around local river ecosystems, identified by the Healthy Danube Network.
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Move through multiple rounds of ideation and iteration in consultation with experts
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Get creative inspiration from topical art interventions at the event
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Pitch your solution to a jury of industry and institutional specialists
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Build a wide network of socially driven, entrepreneurially minded professionals
Three winning solutions – at least one social and one business-oriented – will be selected at the end of the in-person event to continue into the 8-month Grow NEB development trajectory with €10.000 budget. Representatives from selected teams will also have the opportunity to travel to Helsinki to attend Slush (expenses covered).
Register by September 30, 2025 (limited spots available), to jump on board. Curious? Read on for more on our Challenges, online and in-person programme, process details, and FAQs 👇
Please find here the link to the information session, which was hosted on September 24, 2025.
Contact us at community@danube4allproject.eu with any questions.
Sounds great!
How does this work?
by September 30, 2025
"Developing and implementing innovative Win-Win Nature Based Solutions for the Danube River Basin is essential to restoring its severely degraded unique ecosystemsfor its nearly 83 million inhabitants."
The Challenges
3
GAMIFIED NATURE EXPLORATION
Challenge Owner:
PULSAQUA
Design a solution or toolkit for gamified nature exploration in the Danube River Basin to engage communities around local riparian & aquatic ecosystem issues – including barriers, plastics & solid waste, wastewater discharge, species distribution, and sedimentation.
2
SEDIMENTATION,
WATER POLLUTION & CLIMATE EXTREMES
Challenge Owner:
Centre for Social Innovation / iNNOSED
Design a project or tool that improves local conditions, monitors changes, educates the public, or advocates for the protection of the Danube’s unique gravel bank habitats and sediment gradients.
Steps to get started
01
EXPLORE THE CHALLENGES
and choose one to respond to with your idea that can be implemented locally.
02
REGISTER BY SEPTEMBER 30th
to join the Living Danube Challenge as a:
1. team of max five people
2. team seeking additional members with specific skillsets
3. motivated individual with a specific skillset seeking a team
Teams seeking additional members and motivated individuals will be informed if suitable matches have been found.
03
JOIN 3 ONLINE TRAININGS
(17:00-18:00 CET on Wednesdays, September 24, October 1, October 8)
to get equipped with all the practical and substantive information for the in-person sprint event and pitch process, as well as getting to know your team (if you don’t already!).
Webinar 1 is an informational session open to all. Registration is possible before or after.
Join the session on Zoom by following this link!
04
GATHER FOR THE 2-DAY SPRINT
in-person event on October 10th & 11th, 2025 at BOKU River Lab in Vienna, with your team and your big idea.
Travel assistance is available for participants coming from outside the Vienna area.
05
PITCH YOUR SOLUTION
to a jury of cross-sector experts and audience to win one of three spots in the Grow NEB 8-month development trajectory with €10.000 budget to bring your idea to life.
06
ATTEND THE ONBOARDING
on October 29th 2025 for the EIT Grow NEB 8-month development trajectory with the winning teams from all EIT Ignite NEB Events around Europe.
07
JUMP ON BOARD FOR SLUSH
the world’s leading startup event, with your team on November 19th & 20th 2025 in Helsinki.
Participation is fully covered by EIT.
08
BRING YOUR IDEA TO LIFE
through the Grow NEB development trajectory, from January-August 2026. During this time, you will receive a €10.000 budget to prototype, pilot, and position your initiative for launch.
See the FAQs section below for more details on the support we provide through the programme!
winning teams continue here
The Programme
FAQs
What is provided as part of the 10k-valued Grow NEB Development Trajectory?
During the 8-month Development Trajectory, Grow NEB Programme participants receive support from EIT, Climate-KIC, PULSAQUA, and ZSI. We work together with each winning team to allocate their €10.000 budget towards, for example, legal advice, prototyping, space rental, expert consultation, or other material costs, as well as to pay team members for working hours. Teams can also expect to receive: mentorship & coaching, workspace, connection to investors & funding opportunities, legal & intellectual property support, administrative support, networking events, marketing & PR assistance, access to industry partners, technical expertise, market research, business strategy, design & UX/UI expertise, regulatory & compliance expertise, financial expertise, product development expertise, equipment & tools, rapid prototyping facilities, prototyping materials, technical training, technical support, design software, user testing facilities, usability testing tools, quality assurance testing, data analytics tools, beta testing platforms, prototyping feedback, compliance testing, and other requested resources.
Are my travel and accommodation costs during the in-person event covered?
We are pleased to offer a €50 supplement for participants from outside the Vienna region for use towards travel and/or accommodation. You can request this supplement via the registration form.
Do I have to be from a specific country and/or possess a specific residence permit?
No, everyone is welcome. However, the solution should be implemented in the Danube River Basin, so teams should be ready to spend at least 8 months in the region. If you are coming from outside the EU and need a visa to travel, please contact us. Unfortunately we are unable to reimburse any associated costs.
How do I know if this programme is for me?
We recommend this programme if you are: › A (budding) changemaker who wants to make meaningful ecological and social impact while launching your career › A motivated doer ready to commit the upcoming year to bringing your business or initiative to life › Bringing a “dream big, start small” mentality. In other words, proposed solutions should be high return-on-investment, making a tangible difference for your local context in the short-term, while holding potential for broader scale implementation in the future › Part of a team with a mix of skills and disciplines › Highly innovative and creative. We’re looking for fresh & specific solutions in response to some of the Danube River Basin’s most pressing challenges! Again, feel free to attend our open Informational Session on Wednesday September 24th, or contact community@danube4allproject.eu with any questions.
What kind of ideas can I propose? Does it need to be a "start-up"?
Absolutely not! Your proposed solution could be entrepreneurial in nature, but we are also very happy to receive proposals for community initiatives, art projects, social design processes, or any other type intervention you believe can respond effectively to the pressing challenges facing the Danube River Basin. Please bear in mind that the three winning ideas will include at one business-oriented and one socially-oriented proposal.
Do I already need to have a concrete idea to sign up?
Not necessarily, although it would be helpful to come to the ideation process with a first concept to workshop.
Are there any fees to participate in the Living Danube Challenge programme?
No, the programme is free, including catering!
If my winning solution results in a business, are there any shared rights with the event organizers or partners?
No, the idea and any resulting project or business belong to you and your team. Upon entering the Grow NEB development trajectory, your team can sign an IP rights agreement with the European Institute of Innovation & Technology to this point.
Who we are
The Living Danube Challenge is co-organized by European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT)’s Ignite New European Bauhaus Programme, and the DANUBE4all partners PULSAQUA, the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), and BOKU.
Thematic focus
The Danube River Basin is home to 83 million inhabitants. Of these, 20 million rely on the Danube for drinking water, while it serves as an important cultural and economic hub across Europe. Alarmingly, the Danube lost more than 80% of its unique habitats (such as floodplains and river islands) over past century. To protect & improve the Danube waters and environments, we need to move beyond conventional engineering solutions.
Nature-based solutions like a re-connected floodland close to a stream can respond positively and sustainably to local challenges, helping ecosystems to thrive and mitigating risks caused by climate change and earlier river modification. But showcasing the value of nature inspired solutions is too often difficult, which is where citizen science comes in! Ecosystem monitoring by local communities can produce better and trusted datasets that show the positive impact of nature-based solutions and activate institutional support for a better future.
Together with the consortium of European innovation agencies, EIT Community NEB, the international river restoration project, DANUBE4All, is launching five challenges for budding or established changemakers. Each of the challenges is owned by one organisation in the Healthy Danube Network. All challenges are meant to ignite new social business initiatives that revitalize both nature and community in specific regions of the Danube River Basin.