The winners of the Saxon State Prizes 2025

The categories of the Saxon State Prizes 2025

From 153 applications received, a jury of 150 experts selected a total of 27 nominees, who were invited to the Saxon Innovation Conference on June 25, 2025. For the first time this year, the Saxon State Prizes for Foundations, Transfer and Innovation were each awarded in three prize categories. Together with the special NextGen prize as part of the Saxon Start-up Prize, the special prize for skilled trades as part of the Innovation Prize and the new special Social Entrepreneurs prize, a total of 12 winners were honored.

The competitions for the Saxon State Prizes for Start-ups, Transfer and Innovation are organized by the Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, Energy and Climate Protection (SMWA). The aim is to honor and highlight successful start-up concepts and ideas, transfer achievements and innovations.

Saxon Start-up Award 2025: these are the award winners

Start-up of the year award category

• Team: SaxonQ GmbH, Leipzig
• Innovation: SaxonQ develops mobile high-performance quantum computers that work at room temperature and are versatile.

Newcomer of the year award category

• Team: windfire GbR, Leipzig
• Innovation: Team windfire develops innovative wind turbines for direct heat generation - a cost-effective solution for the heat transition.

Award category Scaling & Social Impact

• Team: Soul of Concrete GmbH, Dresden
• Innovation: Soul of Concrete develops modular, sustainable 3D reinforcement bodies that accelerate construction processes and reduce CO2 emissions.

Special NextGen prize as part of the Saxon Founder Award

• Team: bridged
• Innovation: The team of three is planning a platform for the mutual and individual transfer of skills. This will enable them to earn extra money with less effort and offer courses at affordable prices for young people.

Special prize Social Entrepreneurs

• Team: Community-run bakery Ge:Bäck
• Innovation: The community bakery bakes sourdough bread. Here, the concept of community-supported agriculture is transferred to the production and distribution of bread. Producers join forces with consumers to take joint and long-term responsibility for running the bakery, to share the risk and to be able to operate ecologically and socially.

Saxon Transfer Award 2025: these are the award winners

Spin-off prize category

• Transfer donor: Institute for Air Handling and Refrigeration Technology gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mbH, Dresden
• Transfer recipient: AQVA Synergy GmbH, Zittau
• Transfer project: Sustainable chillers without environmentally harmful refrigerants: A turbo compressor for low-pressure water vapor is the basis for AQVA Synergy's products and solutions for designing sustainable heating and cooling supply systems.

Prize category Patent utilization

• Transferor: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Dresden
• Transfer recipient: AMAREA Technology GmbH, Dresden
• Transfer project: With the Multi Material Jetting technology to AMAREA Technology, Fraunhofer IKTS transfers the most efficient technology for the additive manufacturing of complex, multifunctional components made of high-performance materials.

Cooperation award category

• Transferor: Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, Dresden
• Transfer recipient: Bäckerei Möbius GmbH & Co KG, Oederan
• Transfer project: Experience knowledge is digitized and convenient access via chatbot / AI is made possible. An ontology systematizes knowledge content. Employees can thus react efficiently to fluctuations in production and store experiential knowledge.

Saxon Innovation Award 2025: these are the award winners

Award category product/service innovation

• Company: NetTask GmbH, Hohenstein-Ernstthal
• Innovation: The HXA.io platform uses AI to learn future building occupancy from the HXA.io resource & room booking system. This enables the system to control heating, lighting and air conditioning with foresight, reduce consumption and cut costs.

Prize category Process/procedure/business model innovation

• Company: SITEC Industrietechnologie GmbH, Chemnitz
• Innovation: connACT SERVICES offers pioneering solutions for the digitalization of the industrial store floor and supplementary services up to X-as-a-Service.

Innovative corporate culture award category

• Company: Vitrinen- und Glasbau REIER GmbH, Lauta
• Innovation: Vitrinen- und Glasbau REIER GmbH develops innovative, technically sophisticated display cases as well as climate control and filter technology to protect art and cultural assets.

Special prize of the Saxon Chambers of Crafts

• Company: Artefact joinery, Dresden
• Innovation: Gardening is associated with major hurdles for people with physical disabilities. Garden therapist Sylvi Schiller and carpenter Jan Beyer offer a practical solution to this problem with the barrier-free raised bed Frida.

All nominees for the Saxon State Awards for Foundations, Transfer and Innovation can be found here.