The regional winner of Bavaria will receive:

• A EUR 10,000 cash prize to be used at the winner's discretion
• An incubation package sponsored by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs at Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) valued at EUR 35,000
• Furthermore the winner will be able to apply for admission to the European Space Agency's Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) Bavaria at one of its three branch offices - Oberpfaffenhofen, Nuremberg, or Berchtesgadener Land - and will be eligible for an additional EUR 25,000 in incentive funding from ESA, as well as an optional loan from one of the cooperating local banks.
• Depending on the chosen ESA BIC Bavaria branch office, the winner will also benefit from the technical expertise of DLR, Fraunhofer IIS, the Economic Development Corporation Berchtesgadener Land (WFG BGL), and the rest of AZO's extensive network.

The economic region of Munich is one of the top business locations in Europe for aviation, astronautics and satellite navigation, boasting 234 companies and 7 renowned research institutes. With a turnover of EUR 6.9 billion in 2010 and over 36,000 employees in industry and research, aerospace and satellite navigation make a major contribution to the economic power of Munich as a business location. Employees in these industries are highly qualified and specialised, 60% of the staff in aerospace and 83% of those in satellite navigation are university graduates. As a classic high-tech, research-intensive industry, aerospace is constantly providing other industries with significant technological impulses. Satellite navigation, while still young as a commercial industry, is emerging as a sunrise industry with the potential of becoming a key player in the coming years.
Besides big system integrators such as EADS, there are well-known suppliers to the aerospace industry as well as to operations in specialised engineering and machining tools at all tiers of the supply chain in the Munich economic region.
The aerospace and satellite navigation companies in the Munich economic region truly live up to the reputation of their field as being highly research-intensive: On average the aerospace companies invested 18.9% of their turnover in research and development. That puts them ahead of the national average for the aerospace industry, at 15.8%.
www.bayern.de/English-.594/index.htm

AZO was set up in 2001 by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs at the prominent aerospace location Oberpfaffenhofen, located near Munich in Germany. The company’s main goal is to drive innovation and incubation in the commercial use of space technologies and infrastructures. Through the leading innovation networks for satellite navigation (Galileo Masters) and Earth monitoring (GMES Masters), AZO drives the creation of innovative products, services, and business concepts for these emerging market segments. The underlying business concepts can be realised in the form of company foundations as part of the incubation programme at ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Bavaria. Start-ups can apply for admission to ESA BIC Bavaria at one of its three Bavarian locations – Oberpfaffenhofen, Nürnberg and Berchtesgadener Land. Financial support is provided by the Free State of Bavaria and the European Space Agency (ESA). In addition, start-ups benefit from technical and expert support from the local partners: the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the branch office Oberpfaffenhofen, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS at the branch office Nürnberg, and the Economic Development Corporation Berchtesgadener Land (WFG BGL) at the branch office Berchtesgadener Land. Furthermore, ESA BIC Bavaria is part of the Europe-wide ESA BIC network, which has been established to empower entrepreneurship at the European level to the considerable benefit of the regional ESA BICs and their associated start-up companies.
www.anwendungszentrum.de

Invest in Bavaria is the single-stop business promotion agency of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs to handle all projects by international investors to set up new or expand existing businesses in Bavaria. Our aim is to guide and support companies to make the most of Bavaria's excellent location factors and benefits. The international team of Invest in Bavaria has access to technology networks and personal contacts to research institutes and enterprises. Therefore, we they able to provide essential information on business support, links to networks and possible collaboration partners, tailored proposals for selection of a location and other information on the State of Bavaria and its location factors. www.invest-in-bavaria.com