Gewinner OIM-Ideen-Pitch
Die Gewinner sind gekürt!
OIM
Ideas from Münster for Münster
Experience Münster’s best ideas live on stage! 🚀
On July 1 (5–7 p.m.), the top 9 will pitch for up to €5,000 in funding –
Sign up now for the idea pitch
Open Innovation Münster
Rooms, auxiliary structures, project support & impetus for innovation from and for Münster.
Many people in the city have ideas about how we can overcome these challenges. But there is often a lack of the right structures, networks and spaces to turn ideas into solutions. Open Innovation Münster (OIM) fills this gap.
Why OIMWe are an open and digital point of contact for all Münsterans who have an idea to improve life in the city of Münster.
There are no hurdles to participation. The ideas come from children as well as seniors. Are analog or digital. From direct self-interest, for a specific group or simply for everyone.
It doesn't matter what skills the idea providers have. Whether they just provide the impetus or actively participate in the implementation.
OIM Programs
What to expect:
We look forward to your input and discussion!
Check out the programs we're planning for the near future. You'll find more details about our current program on a dedicated subpage. Get actively involved, contribute, and share your ideas with us. We're looking forward to a time of lively exchange, new ideas, and successful implementation. From Münster for Münster.
In 2026, we are planning three different programs:
01
Call for Idea
Idea submission phase active until May 10, 2026
Voting: May 20 - June 3, 2026
Pitch: July 01, 2026
Voting has ended!Experience Münster’s best ideas live on stage! 🚀
On July 1 (5–7 p.m.), the top 9 will pitch for up to €5,000 in funding—and you get to help decide who wins the audience award. Be there—register now.Eligibility requirements: Minimum age 18. Participation is open to citizens, initiatives, associations, and informal groups with ties to Münster. Submissions must be made by the officially announced deadline of May 10, 2026. By submitting an entry, participants agree to the selection and funding terms and conditions. Funding is awarded without legal entitlement. Legal recourse is excluded.
Goal: To raise the profile of innovations from Münster and strengthen the culture of participation.
02
Innovation Workshop with SMEs & Trades
May - September 2026
As part of Open Innovation Münster, we specifically connect businesses from skilled trades and SMEs to identify concrete operational and city-related challenges and jointly develop innovative solutions.
Between May and September, a total of six moderated innovation workshops will take place, organized into three fixed workshop groups.
The Process (two workshops per group)
Workshop 1:
Joint identification of core challenges in everyday business
Interim Phase:
In-depth exploration of topics, initial ideas, and where appropriate, incorporating external input
Workshop 2:
Developing concrete solutions, pilot ideas, and cooperation projects
Working in fixed groups fosters trust, openness, and space for genuine collaboration – across industry and company boundaries.
Objective: Practical innovations that directly help companies and simultaneously provide impetus for the city of Münster – e.g., in the areas of digitalization, sustainability, skilled labor, or new business models.
03
Impact Ideation Lab
October - November 2026
A 6-week program for citizens, students, and engaged individuals.
Identification of specific urban challenges
Development of initial solution ideas in interdisciplinary teams
Coaching by experts
Access to key contacts in government, business, and initiatives
Final pitch on a public stage
Three strategic fields of action for Münster's future
The 2030+ Site Development Strategy identified these fields as crucial for Münster's future. OIM translates them into everyday life — with real solutions, networks and open spaces.
Migrant potential
Focus: Remove barriers, facilitate job access, open networks, open up advice and funding opportunities
Many people with international history, different languages, experiences and skills live in Münster. This diversity offers enormous potential for new ideas, companies and solutions for the city.
At the same time, many face hurdles: when starting a business, accessing jobs, networks, or information. As a result, good ideas often remain invisible.
Example
Aylin has lived in Münster for several years. She regularly helps girlfriends fill out forms for daycare centers, job centers or language courses. Time and again, she realizes that the information is there — but difficult to understand and poorly bundled.
At OIM's Ideation Lab, she brings up exactly this problem. Together with two students, she develops the idea of a multilingual online platform that explains the most important ways through administration — simply, visually and can be used on a smartphone.
Through OIM, the team gets in touch with contacts in the city, tests the prototype with real users and receives support in further development.
Everyday aid is turned into a digital offering that makes it easier for many people to get started in Münster — and has the potential to be used in other cities as well.
Social innovations
Focus: Common good, new forms of cohesion, integration and local support are key.
Social innovation means: New ideas that improve living together in the city, for example on topics such as loneliness, education, participation, care, neighborhood or integration.
Solutions are often not created in the town hall or in the company, but directly from people who experience or see problems themselves.
Issues such as loneliness, care, participation, education and neighborhood are addressed directly. OIM makes social ideas visible, connects people with similar concerns and helps develop viable projects or startups from them.
Example
Mr. Becker has just retired and would like to get involved. At the same time, a local initiative knows many older people who need support in everyday life but do not dare to accept help.
In OIM's Call for Ideas, an idea is submitted: a simple platform that organizes neighborhood help — not anonymously, but at district level with personal contacts.
A small team is developing a pilot project from this. With the support of OIM, talks are being held with social welfare agencies and district centers to test the solution directly on site.
The project connects people who would otherwise never have met — and shows how digital tools can strengthen social closeness.
Green City/Sustainability
Focus: biodiversity, climate adaptation, urban agriculture, sustainable mobility and energy
Climate protection and adaptation to climate change affect everyone: urban heat, heavy rain, mobility, waste, energy, consumption. Many people and initiatives have ideas on how to live and do business more sustainably — but there is often no way to implement them.
This can range from new mobility offers to smart waste prevention to green district projects.
Example
In a residential area in Münster, garbage is always piled up next to the containers. The residents are annoyed, the city cleaning is overloaded, and no one really feels responsible.
At the OIM workshop for environmental ideas, residents, a designer and a geoinformatics student meet. Together, they are developing a concept for smarter collection points with clear signs, better user guidance and sensors that report when containers are full.
With the support of OIM, they are testing the concept in a pilot quarter. The waste is visibly declining and the idea is being examined for further locations.
What began as a local nuisance is becoming a scalable solution for a cleaner city.
OIM – Open Innvoation Münster