From 17 to 20 November, Biotechnical Centre Naklo, a partner in the AgriNext – Incubator of Agricultural and Rural Excellence project, hosted a project week focused on entrepreneurship in multi-purpose farming. Third-year students developed 19 innovative business ideas related to sustainable land use, circular resource use and healthy local food, with expert support from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and RAST. The best teams entered the AgriNext agri-entrepreneurial incubator, where they will further develop their ideas and compete for a study visit to Córdoba, Spain.

At Biotechnical Centre Naklo, partner in the AgriNext – Incubator of Agricultural and Rural Excellence project, a project week took place from 17 to 20 November, where students explored how entrepreneurship can be linked with multi-purpose farming.

Third-year students from classes 3Č, 3N, 3B and 3F took part. In groups, they developed business ideas connected to multi-purpose use of agricultural land, circular use of resources and healthy, local food.

They were supported by external experts in entrepreneurship and organisational sciences:
the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (dr. Gregor Lenart, dr. Marjeta Marolt, dr. Doroteja Vidmar, Nika Dobrovoljec) and RAST (dr. Tanja Sedej). Together with mentors from BC Naklo, they helped students shape their business models and prepare short entrepreneurial pitches.

Students created 19 business ideas, 17 of which were presented to the jury in the form of a pitch. Based on predefined criteria, the jury selected the highest-scoring ideas:

1. Whey ice cream
2. Wild food catering
3. ReFruir Protein
3. MilkyPack
3. Župca – soup2go

These teams have entered the AgriNext agri-entrepreneurial incubator, where they will further develop their ideas – from the first concept to a prototype and market plan.

Importantly, being among the top teams means a pre-selection. A study visit to Spain (Córdoba) will be offered only to those groups that successfully complete the entire incubation process. This project week was therefore just the first step on their entrepreneurial journey.