Innovation Challenges

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North Rhine-Westphalia Singapore Open Innovation Challenge 2023
Challenge Owner(s) Miele
Organiser(s)
Enterprise Singapore, NRW. Global Business
Industry Type(s)
Digital/ICT, Retail
Opportunities and Support Opportunities to work with Miele to roll-out in B2C/B2B markets and establish use case with premium German corporates.
Application Start Date 31 October 2023
Application End Date 29 February 2024
Website Click here to learn more

About Challenge

NRW Singapore Open Innovation Call

In April 2023, Enterprise Singapore and NRW.Global Business GmbH, the trade and investment agency of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), signed a Joint Workplan Agreement to promote two-way internationalisation and innovation collaborations between Singapore and German companies in the areas of advanced manufacturing, green technologies and ICT.

This Joint Workplan Agreement recognized NRW, Germany's largest state economically which contributes 20% to national GDP and is home to many large German corporates, as an attractive region to many Singapore companies; and Singapore as one of NRW's most important economic partners in ASEAN. The launch of the North Rhine-Westphalia – Singapore Open Innovation Challenge at SWITCH 2023 is one of the key activities arising from this Joint Workplan Agreement.

The first run will feature challenge statements from Miele, the German manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances and commercial equipment. Subsequent runs will feature challenge statements from other Stratosfare members, a tech and innovation network jointly set up by large German corporates and Mittelstands from the region.

Click Here to Apply
Challenge Owner(s)Miele
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Retail, Sustainable Energy

Developing Solution to Disinfect/Sterilise Products More Sustainably

Disinfection/sterilization with hot water steam or chemicals is not efficient enough to meet sustainability requirements. In the B2C and B2B sector of laundry care (Washing machines for home use and professional washing machines for hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.) and B2B medical applications sector (Disinfection of surgical instruments and other medical tools.), disinfection and sterilization is made with hot water steam or chemicals.

These solutions work but require a lot of resources and consume a large amount of water. We are open to solutions that reduce water consumption or even methods that replace water steam or alternative ways to use less chemicals.

Please refer to applicable Miele products here: Products (miele.sg)

What We Are Looking For

We are seeking more efficient and sustainable alternative solutions to steam and chemicals. Solutions could be completely new approaches or the improvement of existing ones.

Technical requirements

  • In the laundry care sector, the focus is on disinfection. The goal is a resource-saving solution that performs as well as current methods. Miele had explored plasma disinfection, for example, but so far have not achieved sufficiently good results.
  • In the medical applications sectors, the focus is on complete sterility.

Timeframe for development of the product/solution

  • POC between 3-6 months
  • As this is currently a predevelopment topic, technology is only relevant for next product generation in the next 3-5 years


Opportunity provided by Miele

  • Potential market roll-out in B2C/B2B laundry care and medical devices
  • Miele R&D department (with background knowledge in chemistry, textile treatment and medical technology) will support the right startup with solution development

Next steps



Challenge Owner(s)Miele
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Retail
Quieter Home Appliances Usage Experience  

Some home appliances are very noisy, which customers find disturbing. Currently, attempts to keep appliances as quiet as possible make use of (1) sound-absorbing substances as seals, (2) noise-reducing materials for the product components and (3) developing quieter drives. These solutions have worked well but they have reached their limits. Existing active noise cancelling solutions are only suited for closed systems, rather than for open systems like a home environment.

The challenge is relevant for household appliances that have a suction motor installed and suck in air. The suction motor ensures that air is drawn in from the area around it and makes quite a lot of noise in the process.


What We Are Looking For

Since the noise is transported by airflow, we are looking for startups that apply the Quiet-at-the-source technology. This means that noise must be reduced directly at source, so that the air flow has no possibility to transport noise.

Solutions for closed systems will not help us, as appliances carry noise into an open environment and can also be affected by their environment. Closed systems cannot be influenced by their environment and therefore have different basic requirements.


Technical requirements

Approximately between 40-80dB. A reduction of at least 20% would be beneficial, but this is not strictly defined.


Timeframe for development of the product/solution

  • POC between 3-6 months
  • As this is currently a predevelopment topic, technology is only relevant for next device generations in the next 3-5 years


Opportunity provided by Miele

  • Miele R&D department and innovation department will support the right startup with solution development.

Next steps