Bavarian Innovation Award

The biennial "Bavarian Innovation Award" honors Bavarian companies for their innovative achievements, thereby emphasizing their high relevance for Bavaria as a business location. The initiative, comprising the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the Association of Bavarian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Bavarian Association of Chambers of Crafts, has been recognizing innovation-oriented, successful companies from Bavaria since 2012 based on the following criteria:

• Level of technical or procedural innovation
• Patents (where applicable to the technology sector)
• Degree of achieved or foreseeable market success
• Impact on the Bavarian economy and its competitiveness

Award Categories

In addition to the top three places in the main category, the Bavarian Innovation Award can also confer additional accolades in the categories of "Companies with fewer than 50 employees," "Start-ups up to 5 years old," "Cooperation between Business and Science," and a special prize awarded by the jury.

Jury Members

The independent jury of the Bavarian Innovation Award 2024 consists of the following members:

• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. (NAS RA) Arndt Bode, President of the Bavarian Research Foundation (Chairman of the Jury)
• Andreas Bachmann, Editor-in-Chief BR24 Rundschau - Bavarian Broadcasting (Munich)
• Dr.-Ing. Christina Hack, Head of Technology & Innovation Brose Group - Brose Vehicle Parts GmbH & Co. KG (Bamberg)
• Dr. Thomas Kinkeldei, Co-Founder Rokin GmbH (Munich)
• Peter Leitenmayer, Head of Innovation and Contract Financing - LfA Förderbank Bayern (Munich)
• Maximilian Lörzel, Managing Director - SCHRÖTER Model and Tool Making (Oberpframmern)
• Bernd Maile, Vice President - German Patent and Trade Mark Office (Munich)
• Carmen Schnupp, Managing Director - Schnupp GmbH & Co. Hydraulik KG (Bogen)

KASPAR SCHULZ among the Nominees

The Bavarian Innovation Award recognizes outstanding achievements in product and process innovation, as well as innovative technology-oriented services. According to the competition requirements, these should already have achieved market success or are highly likely to do so in the future.
With its latest technical innovation, KASPAR SCHULZ decided to enter the renowned innovation competition with the SCHULZ Wizard, which has already been introduced to the market. The entry of the de-alcoholization plant exceeded all expectations and likely even surpassed its ambitious goals. For this reason, the family-owned company from Bamberg recently received the gratifying news of its nomination for this year's edition of the Innovation Award. In total, 149 Bavarian companies were nominated. Finally, on October 14th, the winners will be announced in a celebratory event in Munich. Already in 2016, KASPAR SCHULZ received an award at the Bavarian Innovation Award. The SCHULZ malting system impressed the jury, and they were delighted to secure third place in the main category.

Multitalent SCHULZ Wizard

The de-alcoholization plant, developed and manufactured in-house by the world's oldest brewery plant manufacturer KASPAR SCHULZ, finally offers small and medium-sized breweries the opportunity to independently produce alcohol-free beer of the highest quality. As an additional benefit, the SCHULZ Wizard includes a water de-aeration, carbonation, blending, and short-term heating unit, making the system unique in the market. This multi-talent, which has been filed for a patent, impressed at its official market launch during the international trade fair for the brewing and beverage industry, BrauBeviale, in late November 2023 in Nuremberg.