Participate in the Challenge:
Engineering Microbial Consortia

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Important: All information must be provided in English.

Salutation

Title

Last name

First name

Phone number

Your position (e.g. project manager, CEO)

Institution

Institution (other) (Enter your institution here, if it is not in the list above)

Current legal entity form

Legal Form (details) (If you are an existing entity or in formation, please state your registered company name, jurisdiction, and incorporation date. If you are not yet formed, briefly describe your target timeline to founding.)

Address line 1

Address line 2

Postal Code

City

Country

Country (other) (Enter your country here, if it is not in the list above)

Where did you first learn that SPRIND exists?

Please specify where you heard about us.

What made you decide to actually apply to this Challenge?

Please specify what made you apply for this challenge.

YOUR SOLUTION

Project Title

0/50

Short Description

0/500

Support your answers with data where available. Where data are not yet available, give clearly labelled estimates and explain their basis. Distinguish demonstrated results from assumptions and targets.

You may apply without an existing company or a complete team. TBA/TBD is acceptable for unresolved roles or partners if you explain how and when they will be resolved. For technical or economic questions, give a reasoned estimate or explain how you will establish the answer rather than using TBA/TBD alone.

LINK TO RELEVANT ARTIFACTS

E.g., articles, research papers

0/500

PROPOSED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Describe the manufacturing technology you propose to develop through this Challenge and the manufacturing problem it addresses.
Explain the improvement it could make possible. Use plain language.

0/1000

FIRST PRODUCT, MARKET AND COMMERCIAL VIABILITY

Identify your intended first product and potential customers. Give preliminary estimates of their required specifications, expected purchase quantities and acceptable prices, and explain the basis for these estimates.
Explain your preliminary production economics and key assumptions, and how you will develop and refine your techno-economic assessment.
Summarise any customer discussions or other evidence so far, and explain how you will test customer needs and willingness to buy.

0/2000

MANUFACTURING APPROACH AND IMPROVEMENTS ON CURRENT PRACTICE

Describe current methods and their relevant limitations. Include the strongest credible alternative manufacturing process for producing your first product or delivering the same function to the required specification.
Explain your proposed approach from feedstock to finished product, including the roles and interactions of the different microbes.
Define the changes or stresses your process must tolerate and their expected magnitude: your designed operating range. Include only variation relevant to your first product. State the performance you must maintain to meet your first market's needs and how you will measure consistency. Explain why this robustness depends on multiple strains or species growing together.

0/2000

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE, ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS

Describe relevant results from your own work or others, including the conditions under which they were obtained. Give references or links where available.
Distinguish demonstrated results from assumptions, estimates and targets.
Identify the untested assumption on which your project most depends and how you would test it. Briefly describe other major risks and how you would address them.

0/1500

AI/ML FOR EXPERIMENTAL DECISIONS AND PROCESS CONTROL

Explain how quantitative AI/ML predictions made before outcomes are known will guide both experimental decisions and process control. Give one concrete example of a prediction and the decision it would inform. Include detecting and responding to changes, and starting or restoring production where relevant.
Identify the data, models and tools you have or will need, important gaps, and how you will check predictions against measured results.
Describe the records you will keep so that predictions can be traced to the data and models used, the decisions they informed and the measured outcomes. Explain how you will document resulting changes.

0/1500

RESOURCE USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST APPLICATION

Give preliminary estimates of resource use and environmental impacts appropriate to your stage of development. Compare with the alternative identified in the manufacturing-approach question and state your main assumptions.
Identify the factors most important to investigate and what you still need to learn: for example, feedstock availability and existing uses, major resource demands or possible environmental concerns. Explain how these could affect the viability of your first application.
Explain what you will measure or investigate during Stage 1 and how this will inform an initial life-cycle assessment (LCA) and later updates. A completed LCA is not required at application.

0/1000

THE TECHNOLOGY'S POTENTIAL TO CLOSE MATERIAL OR CARBON CYCLES

Give one or two concrete examples, naming candidate feedstocks, products or specific reductions in resource use, and explain how these would help close material or carbon cycles. These may build on your first application or involve other applications.
Describe the further development needed and how your proposed SPRIND project advances the technology towards these applications.

0/1000

STAGE 1 WORK PLAN AND USE OF SPRIND FUNDING

Describe the work packages, responsibilities, timing and milestones, including work by partners or subcontractors.
Explain how you will address the main risks, generate early evidence of consistent manufacturing performance, develop initial process-control capabilities and assess progress.
Relate the plan to your cost estimate and explain the main spending choices.
Explain why SPRIND funding is decisive and how it will accelerate development.

0/2000

STAGES 2 AND 3: DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

Briefly outline preparation for the external robustness evaluations, the Stage 3 engineering demonstration and customer acceptance testing described in Sections 4 and 11 of the Call.
Propose preliminary Stage 3 demonstration scale, duration and configuration. Explain how these would reflect intended commercial use, expose the main engineering risks, permit external evaluation and provide sufficient recovered material at the required quality for customer testing.
Include approximate Stage 2 and Stage 3 budgets. An outline is sufficient; detailed later-stage work packages are not required. These are preliminary estimates and may be refined as development progresses.

0/2000

SHARED SERVICES AND REFERENCE SAMPLES

Explain which shared services described in Section 6 of the Call you would use and how.
Identify non-confidential reference samples you could provide, when they would be available, and useful reference datasets the partners could generate from those samples. Sharing and publication arrangements are described in Section 12.

0/500

TEAM EXPERIENCE, MOTIVATION AND COMMITMENT

Introduce the core team and explain what motivates you to pursue this project.
Describe your respective roles and how you will work together. Explain who will commit substantial effort to the project, and who will serve primarily in an advisory role.
Describe relevant experience, capabilities and distinctive insights, and how they will contribute to the project.
Identify missing expertise and how and when you will recruit people, work with partners or obtain external services to fill the gaps. TBA/TBD is acceptable for unresolved roles or partners when accompanied by a credible plan.

0/1500

COMPANY LEADERSHIP AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Describe how your existing or planned company will secure access to the intellectual property (IP), people, and partnerships needed while retaining final technical and commercial decision-making authority.
Explain existing arrangements and those still to be established, including arrangements with universities or other partners.
If no company exists, explain your plan and timeline for forming one early in Stage 1.

0/1000

OTHER EXPERIENCE OR PERSPECTIVES

Relevant insights from farming, architecture, design or other backgrounds are welcome. Explain how your unique experiences would contribute to the project.
Enter N/A if you have nothing to add.

0/500

PLEASE STATE YOUR FINANCIAL COST ESTIMATE FOR STAGE 1

Maximum €1,200,000, plus VAT if applicable. Amount in EUR.
SPRIND-funded shared services are additional to the team funding and should not be included in this request.

0/100

What best describes your current legal entity status?

If you are an existing entity or in formation, please state your registered company name, jurisdiction, and incorporation date. If you are not yet formed, briefly describe your roadmap and target timeline to founding. You may refer to your company-leadership answer for the founding roadmap and timeline.

0/800

TEAM MEMBER 1

Name, role on the project (e.g., PI, Technical Lead, Research Engineer) and Percent FTE committed

0/300

TEAM MEMBER 1

Links to demonstrate track record (Industry, Entrepreneurship, Google-Scholar, GitHub-Project,...)

0/500

TEAM MEMBER 2

Name, role on the project (e.g., PI, Technical Lead, Research Engineer) and Percent FTE committed

0/300

TEAM MEMBER 2

Links to demonstrate track record (Industry, Entrepreneurship, Google-Scholar, GitHub-Project,...)

0/500

TEAM MEMBER 3

Name, role on the project (e.g., PI, Technical Lead, Research Engineer) and Percent FTE committed

0/300

TEAM MEMBER 3

Links to demonstrate track record (Industry, Entrepreneurship, Google-Scholar, GitHub-Project,...)

0/500

ATTACHMENTS

Mandatory uploads:
• CVs of key personnel
• Detailed cost overview (PDF) – Provide the main cost categories and their basis, and relate major costs to the Stage 1 work packages.
• Please add the form “DECLARATION on RUS SANCTIONS” (obligatory). You can find the document here: German | English

Choose document (.PDF)

DATA PROTECTION POLICY

PRIVACY NOTICE

I/we declare that I/we agree to the processing of my/our data in accordance with the SPRIND GmbH privacy notice – dated May 2026.

Reasons for Exclusion

I/we agree with the statement on reasons for exclusion:YesNo

If No: The proof of self-cleaning according to § 125 GWB is enclosed with the offer.

Declaration of Infringements

I/we agree with the statement on infringements: Yes/ NoYesNo

If No: The proof of self-cleaning according to § 125 GWB must be enclosed with the offer.

SPAM PROTECTION

Please answer the following question to demonstrate that you are a human.

How many meters are in a kilometer?

Participate in the Challenge:Engineering Microbial Consortia

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

YOUR SOLUTION

ATTACHMENTS

DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Reasons for Exclusion

Declaration of Infringements

SPAM PROTECTION

Participate in the Challenge:
Engineering Microbial Consortia