Anyone who still is a student (please mention name of the school and semester) and young entrepreneurs who finished their studies max 3 years ago can apply.

In a first step, the candidates have to completely fill out the ISA questionnaire.

In a second step, the filled out documents will be assessed by START regarding the completeness of the information and the compliance with the minimum criteria for innovation and sustainability. Afterwards, the business plan will be verified on its commercial viability. This screening process will then determine six finalists.

The six finalists will step in front of the jury on the 29th of April 2010. The finalist will first have to present their product, respectively their project, in max. 10 minutes. Then the finalists will have to face the jury in order to answer their questions (this will happen on the same day).

The jury as a whole will decide afterwards about the winner of the Innovation & Sustainability Award. The Innovation & Sustainability Award is not limited to specific categories/sectors. However, the START association is allowed to limit the number of categories. Such a change has always to be contained in the admission requirements. 

The selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award winner should occur according to the following criteria:

- Financial performance

- Entrepreneurial overall performance

- Degree of innovation

- Degree of sustainability, which applies to the economical sustainability, the social sustainability and the ecological sustainability

- The entrepreneur’s engagement.

The selection of the Innovation & Sustainability Award winner needs at least 3/4 of the votes of the jury. The percentage of the votes will not be disclosed. Equally is the protocol of the jury meetings only destined for the members of the jury.