Today, we­ shared plans for an exciting new addition: a ve­gan McDonald’s location! While this idea gene­rated interest and curiosity, this is an April Fools’ Day prank! At Mercator Launch, we’re passionate about supporting early-phase entrepreneurship and innovative business ideas. While the vegan McDonald’s might not become reality, it highlighted the university’s ongoing efforts to embrace plant-based options. We fully support Radboud University’s mission to increase vegetarian and vegan offerings on campus, as outlined in its sustainability objectives for 2025. Embracing change and innova ..read more

Meet Mathijs Buddingh’, our passionate project manager at the Science Park, a thriving hub nestled within Radboud University and Radboudumc’s green campus. Here, knowledge-intensive companies collaborate and innovate, driven by a commitment to sustainability and impactful change. With a background rooted in stewardship principles, emphasizing responsible resource management, Mathijs brings a unique perspective to his role, blending sustainability with innovation for a brighter future. Nature’s Influence on an Entrepreneurial Journey Mathijs’s journey originates from a ‘green’ background in Ag ..read more

Catching up with Karel Leusink In this series we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they’re doing. For this episode we interviewed Karel Leusink, the founder of International Students Work. International Students Work is a recruitment agency that helps local companies grow faster by connecting them with international students. We asked Karel about his idea, his challenges and his ambitions. Read the story of startup International Students Work below! Karel has a simple explanation for how he came up with the idea of International Students Work. He has been an ‘international student’ him ..read more

In our series “Catching up with …”, we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they are doing and what they are working on! Innovation Competition alumni Kinga Matula and Francesca Rivello will be founding, with prof. dr Wilhelm Huck, Monoceros Analytics, a spin-off that will support pharma companies in the early identification of successful drug molecules by offering high-resolution unbiased molecular insights into their mode of action of the drug molecules. This knowledge will have a major impact on the drug development process as it will enable rapid decision-making during drug design cy ..read more

By Jan Jonker (Radboud University) and Niels Faber (University of Groningen) ‘It can and should not have escaped you that we currently live in a time of fundamental change, or transition. Whether you look at the recent IPCC Report, the European Green Deal or the Dutch Transition Agendas, the message is the same everywhere: we need real change and we need it now. But that’s easier said than done. After all, we have an existing (linear) economy that is based on principles that are fundamentally under discussion. But how we should be doing things differently is not self-evident. Because we still ..read more

You’ve probably heard that creative minds often get distracted because they’re always busy catching up with a new idea. Let me illustrate this with a cute metaphor: creative minds are like balloons, they’re created to fly but if no one pulls the strings, they can disappear completely. It means that creative thoughts risk remaining only as a mind-based idea. As an artist, I always suffered from being “too creative” in the sense that when it comes to realizing my ideas, I was often lost. Which idea should I choose to elaborate? Which of my ideas should I work on? Blah blah blah… never-ending int ..read more

Happy belated new year! We can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for us. Traditionally, we relive the highlights of the year at Mercator Launch by putting a few of our startups in the spotlight. This year we’re doing things a bit different. Instead of looking back, we’re looking ahead. And we do so by paying special attention to 10 startups that are likely to have great impact. We start off with startup Radix Security. The mission of founders David Rupprecht and prof. Katharina Kohls is to make mobile network security accessible, by providing reliable services and products to their customer ..read more

At the end of this year, we’ll have supported over 400 budding entrepreneurs. We’re really proud and happy to reach such numbers. They show our stakeholders what we do and why we do it. They help us convince them that our support is needed and valuable. These numbers also represent 400 individual stories about ambition, goals, dreams, ideas, and innovation. Every story is unique and every one of them fills us with joy. It’s wonderful to see people realise their desired wish of becoming an entrepreneur, improving themselves and growing. As your favourite entrepreneurial skills training programm ..read more

Marcus Coolen (left) and Jarrod Gott (right) In our newest series “Exchanging Perspectives” we invite two or more parties to talk to them about a topic. In this first episode we interviewed entrepreneur Jarrod Gott and his mentor Marcus Coolen about their relationship as mentee and mentor. Find out what it looks like and how having a mentor helps Jarrod to start his own company Osiris Sleep Analytics. Neuroscientist Jarrod Gott and Information Technology expert Marcus Coolen are in different fields, still Marcus guides Jarrod on his journey as an ambitious entrepreneur. Their relationship star ..read more

By Saskia Eijkelhof Taking risks is an essential part of being an entrepreneur and is, usually only in hindsight, the most interesting part that helps you grow on both an individual and company level. But even though risk-taking is the most interesting, it is also the most challenging. The Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme is designed to help you, an innovative entrepreneur, mitigate foreseeable risks and reduce uncertainty. According to one of last year’s participants it’s ‘A great programme to start with’. This is for good reason, as the programme encourages entrepreneurs to consider differe ..read more