Prototyping Fund

The Prototyping Fund aimed to support student-led innovation, and foster creativity and sustainable and meaningful solutions tackling social and environmental issues. It provided up to €500 or €1500* for hardware, software, and engagement activities. Participating teams were als connected with valuable resources, tools, and mentorship to turn their ideas into reality (learn more about the awarded projects below).

The Prototyping Fund was originally launched as a collaborative initiative between the DESIS Lab @Nova SBE and the Nova SBE Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute, and in partnership with the London School of Economics. It was created as part of the Shaping the World by Innonexus project, funded by the European Union. The first three editions run from September 2023 to November 2024 and from Spring 2025 to Spring 2026 the Prototyping Fund continued led and funded by the DESIS Lab within the ERA Chair in Social Innovation.

Since Spring 2025, the Prototyping Fund has continued led and funded by the DESIS Lab within the ERA Chair in Social Innovation. We are back for the 6th edition! The Spring 2026 Prototyping Fund will enable up to 10 teams in Phase 1 (with funding up to 600€ each) and up to 3 teams in Phase 2 (with funding up to 1.500€ each) to transform their ideas into prototypes that address pressing social or environmental issues. We are excited to continue supporting student-led innovation, and foster creativity and sustainable and meaningful solutions across disciplines, programs, and schools at Nova University.

*For projects that were previously awarded in a previous cycle and are now seeking to reapply to further develop the initial prototype.

Who It’s For

This program is for all students from any Nova University school (with at least one SBE student in the group) who are passionate about building new products or services or have an idea with a clear environmental and social impact purpose.

Funds must be used for tools and materials to build the prototype (not to pay someone else to build it for you).
All Nova students (undergrad and grad) are eligible to apply as well as other School students if they have in their team at least one Nova University student.
Teams will be given preference (individual applicants from Nova University will be considered. Students from other Schools cannot apply individually).
Multi-school collaborations will be given preference.
All teams must have at least one Nova University student but may also include members from outside the University as well.

Resources and Events

Awarded teams have access to:

Workshops: two workshops focused on best practices in prototyping.
Equipment: Teams will be given access to key partners who can provide access to equipment and tools.
Showcase: All funded projects will participate in a presentation event at the end of the semester to showcase your prototypes to the NovaSBE community.

Key dates – Spring 2026, 6th cycle

Applications for the Spring’26: From Monday, January 5th to Monday, February 9th at 1pm
Communication to selected projects: Monday, February 16th until 11:59pm
Mandatory Workshop 1 (for 1st time awardees): Thursday, February 19th, 10:00am – 11:15am
Mandatory Workshop 2 (for 1st time awardees): Tuesday, March 17th, 2 to 3:30pm
Final Showcase: Tuesday, April 28th, 12:30pm to 2:30pm

How to participate

About the participants:

Teams or individuals are welcome.
Individual participants must be Nova SBE students.
Teams must have at least 1 member from Nova SBE.
We encourage diverse, multidisciplinary teams from different schools.

Program Essentials:

Thoroughly review our funding system details and program dates.

Active Participation:

Selected teams must actively engage in all scheduled workshops and events.

Minimum Participation Requirement:

The program proceeds only if we have a minimum of 5 selected projects/teams to fund.

Funding process

The fund will enable up to 10 teams in Phase 1 (with funding up to 600€ each) and up to 3 teams in Phase 2 (with funding up to 1.500€ each) to transform their ideas into prototypes that address pressing social or environmental issues.
ALL receipts must be saved and be presented to the coordination team for review at the end of the cycle.
To receive the funding, at least one member of the team must be present at the 2 mandatory workshops and the final presentation. Please check the key dates and times before applying.
More information about the payment process will be given during the first mandatory workshop.

**Please note, we can not support the hiring outside assistance, this includes gifts for testing and/or feedback. We do not support either the purchase of hardware like laptops, tablets or similars**

Review of applications

The evaluation committee is composed by two members from DESIS Lab @NovaSBE, one member from Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute and a DESIS Lab @NovaSBE mentor.