MANZ StartUp Challenge
Future Village
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MANZ – Our tradition is your advantage!
Supported by the innovation service provider Future-Law, MANZ is now launching the MANZ Challenge: Future Village. Our goal is to find, develop and promote the best ideas, prototypes, concepts and programs.
As the Austrian market leader for legal information, MANZ consequently invests in actively shaping future trends. Together with the Austrian Association of Municipalities, we are looking for innovative solutions within the European Union and CEE for the more than 2,000 Austrian municipalities.
Competition Categories
Attractive living space
All cities are growing, but only a third of the municipalities do so. By 2027, rural areas will have lost more than 50,000 well-educated people to the Vienna metropolitan area alone, with young, well-educated women in particular migrating. In addition, there is a shortage of apprentices. The companies, on the other hand, lack a well-trained workforce - a vicious circle. What concepts make rural areas worth living again for these target groups? And which educational concepts will make rural areas fit for the future?
Future-proof infrastructure
Constant or declining population figures (as in two thirds of the municipalities) mean declining revenues with the same infrastructure and administrative costs: schools are being closed, municipalities are being merged and 88,700 kilometres of roads and 60,000 buildings can hardly be renovated. Another example: More than 60% of all waste is recycled in the communities - an arduous process. This calls for ideas for the sustainable reduction of administrative and infrastructure costs!
Lean administration
Austria already occupies the top spot in Europe's most important eGovernment comparison (eg www.help.gv.at), but we are far from achieving our goal: Which modern technologies can be of service to citizens and businesses and increase the quality and/or efficiency of public administration at the same time? How can business processes and processes in the field of communication and transactions between public authorities and with citizens or companies be made more efficient or more qualitative without endangering the confidentiality and security of the data?
Active participation
Cost savings in personnel also makes it more difficult for municipality’s employees to listen to and respond to the everyday concerns and needs of the citizens. Many citizens feel abandoned by politics. In addition, citizens' trust in the EU institutions continues to decline. Non-transparent legislative processes, a lack of proximity to citizens and few opportunities for direct participation lead to dissatisfaction. How can these communication gaps be closed sustainably? What are the participation models of the future?
Quality care
Austrian municipalities operate approximately 4420 compulsory schools and 2226 care facilities for the youngest, elderly or those with health impairments. The costs are depleting the budget, qualified personnel are increasingly difficult to find, and in ten to fifteen years, around half of general practitioners will be retired. Which concepts and ideas can the cost structure be improved with, while the quality remains at least the same?
Social cohesion
In Austria's municipalities, the firefighters of the approximately 4,500 volunteer fire brigades are not only there when we need them most, they also have an important role when it comes to social cohesion. The members of the other, about 115,000 nonprofit-organisations, almost 14,000 of them sports clubs, are often involved day and night in our social or physical wellbeing. Generational or social spaces are created to increase the quality of life for all ages. The communities are looking for more ideas to further improve the social cohesion of all community residents.
Challenges of the Communities
Timeline
The five most promising ideas will be selected by an expert jury.
The MANZ Summer School will take place in July 2019. The start-ups move into the MANZ hub, receive content support in the further development and implementation of the concepts, access to a suitable mentor and further industry know-how:
- The winners will receive the Accelerator Package,
- participate in the MANZ & Gemeindebund Mentoring Program,
- receive exclusive access to project-relevant know-how,
- benefit from public relations work and the network of partners involved, and
- will take part in the Demo Day in autumn.
Start of application phase
End of application phase
Invitation of the Top 10 Applicants to the MANZ Challenge
MANZ Challenge: Selection of the Top 4 applicants
MANZ Summer School 1.-5. July
MANZ Pressure Cooker
MANZ Demo Day
Organizing Team
MANZ’sche Verlags und Universitätsbuchhandlung, headquartered in Vienna, is Austria’s market leader for legal information. MANZ-red stands for legal security, quality and innovation. In the digital sector, MANZ supports the well-known RDB legal database with innovative solutions for the digitization of workflows, cloud solutions for electronic legal transactions, file management and service entry including fee allocation for lawyers as well as solutions for the legally compliant creation and storage of documents and provides access to important services such as business register, land register and registration records. The MANZ’sche Verlags und Universitätsbuchhandlung, which has existed since 1849, has been majority-owned by the family for five generations and is part of the MANZ Group, a media company of the 21st century.
The Austrian Association of Municipalities is the umbrella organization representing the interests of municipalities at the federal level and is organized in 10 regional associations. The Austrian Association of Municipalities represents almost all municipalities except Vienna, and thus about 70% of the Austrian population. 75,000 community workers (15% of them in the administration) ensure that the roads are clean, that we have a functioning water and sanitation system, that our children are cared for or that the waste is disposed of properly. In addition, the communities support the approximately 117,000 nonprofit-organisations that shape local living together. Also in environmental protection, the municipalities are dominant, so have been e.g. converted one million street lamps to the new technologies. Another big challenge year after year, the 88,700 kilometers of communal roads – that’s 71 percent of all roads – are free from snow.
The Corporate Innovation Specialist Future-Law provides the professional framework for start-up research and development. Future-Law connects organizations and companies with disruptive technologies, products and services. Future-Law identifies challenges in the business or organizational areas of its customers and transforms them into tailor-made innovation solutions. www.future-law.at
Jury Members
Walter Leis
Gemeindebund
Lucas Sobotka
Gemeindebund
Wolfgang Pichler
Manz
Susanne Stein-Pressl
Manz
Lena Gansterer
Impact Hub
Clemens Wasner
EnliteAI
MENTORS
Walter Leiss
Generalsekretär des Österreichischen Gemeindebundes
Carina Rumpold
Pressesprecherin des Österreichischen Gemeindebundes
Johannes Pressl
Vizepräsident des NÖ Gemeindebundes
Thomas Ecker
tecnet equity