Start-up IonKraft honoured with RWTH Innovation Award

The start-up IonKraft, which has its roots in IKV's plasma technology working group, has been awarded 1st place in the RWTH Innovation Award 2021. The founders of the start-up, Benedikt Heuer and Montgomery Jaritz, want to use plasma technology to make plastic packaging for barrier applications in the chemical industry recyclable and thus replace multi-material solutions.

The founders of IonKraft, Montgomery Jaritz and Benedikt Heuer, are delighted to have won 1st place at the RWTH Innovation Award. | Photo: Ionkraft

Plasma coatings are intended to enable the production of plastic packaging that is particularly light, as dense as glass, absolutely chemically resistant and yet fully recyclable. This technology has its origins in the research work of the plasma technology working group at IKV – with IonKraft it is to find its way into industrial application. The project was reviewed by an external jury of experts right at the beginning of the start-up phase and is financially supported by the EXIST research transfer programme of the BMWK.

Normally, the award winners are ceremoniously honoured at the "RWTHtransparent" event at the end of January – due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the winners were now announced on the social media channels of RWTH Aachen University on 21 January 2022; the face-to-face event will be made up for in the summer of 2022.

IKV congratulates Benedikt Heuer and Montgomery Jaritz and wishes them continued success in their venture.

RWTH Innovation Award

The RWTH Innovation Award has been presented since 2014 and annually honours researchers and students, scientific and non-scientific employees of RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich, respectively, whose ideas contribute to the innovation and charisma of the Aachen region. RWTH's overarching goal is to support initiatives that benefit society as a whole and to strengthen and stimulate the idea of start-ups and innovation.

The projects are assessed in a two-stage evaluation process that examines the degree of innovation of the technology, the social relevance of the field of application, the degree of technological maturity, the development plan, the market potential and the overall impression of the application. The three best are selected and rewarded with monetary prizes.