Startup Contest 2025: Two Winners from NODES Spoke 6

An achievement that confirms the project excellence and entrepreneurial potential of NODES Spoke 6, turning research and innovation into concrete, nationally recognized ventures.

Outstanding results for NODES at the 2025 Startup Contest organized by Borsa della Ricerca: two of the ten winning projects come from Spoke 6, making NODES the only PNRR-funded ecosystem to receive a double award.

The Startup Contest is a national initiative designed to highlight entrepreneurial ideas and emerging startups developed within PNRR projects. The 2025 edition saw the participation of 50 teams who presented their solutions and proof-of-concepts to a national audience of over 100 leading companies and investors, including Thermo Fisher, RINA, De Longhi, ENAV, EssilorLuxottica, Colussi, Zoppas and Giuliani. The winners were selected by a jury of R&D managers from Barilla, NTTData, Webuild, Pfizer, and representatives of Invitalia.

The two winning projects from Spoke 6 are:

🔹 BIORESTART 4.0 – An innovative and sustainable extraction technology for producing functional plant-based ingredients from fruit, vegetable, and aromatic plant by-products. Applications span the food and agrochemical sectors, with clear environmental and cost benefits compared to traditional solvent-based methods.

🔹 DEMETRA – A virtual reality training system for agricultural workers that enables learning of crop-handling techniques regardless of seasonality. Real farming tools are adapted for virtual interaction, offering companies reduced training costs, time savings, and standardized learning outcomes.

Both teams will participate in the Forum EXPO PNRR, to be held in Catania from October 1 to 3, 2025, with a customized agenda of B2B meetings with investors, companies, and innovation stakeholders.