Gen-E Festival in Athens, an award for Lycée Aline Mayrisch

Athens, Greece – From July 1 to 3, 2025, Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg made its mark at the prestigious European Gen-E Festival, celebrating student entrepreneurship. Two Luxembourgish teams, Feel It and Onsko, proudly represented the country in their respective competitions.

Gen-E, a major European event celebrating entrepreneurship and the achievements of European students, took place from July 1 to 3, 2025, in Athens, Greece. This year, the event was organized by JA Greece, which, like Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg, is part of the Junior Achievement (JA) Europe network. The festival offers thousands of young entrepreneurs, aged 15 and over, the opportunity to showcase their business ideas and compete for the title of Best Company and Best Start-Up of the Year. The Gen-E Festival brings together two annual European entrepreneurship competitions for the winners of the JA Company Program (known as “Mini-Entreprises” in Luxembourg) and the JA Startup Programme (formerly known as “Young Enterprise Project” in Luxembourg) from 41 countries.

Slogan of Gen-E 2025: Trace your path forward

Team Luxembourg

Feel it

Feel It, winner of the national Mini-Entreprises competition, took part in the JA Company competition, designed for European secondary school students aged 15 to 19. The “JA Company Programme” (known as “Mini-Enterprises” in Luxembourg) gives students the opportunity to create and run a small business over the course of a school year.

Feel It developed a truly inclusive board game, inspired by the personal experience of Noémie, a team member who is blind. The concept is based on a powerful goal: allowing blind and sighted people to play together on equal terms. More than just a game, Feel It offers a sensory and social experience. It includes tactile wooden letters, embossed cards, a sand timer, a digital version adapted for the visually impaired, and bags made from recycled jeans. The result is a fun, accessible, sustainable, and locally produced game that blends inclusion with innovation.

The Feel It team is made up of Noémie Caravalho Pereira, Chloé Vegers, and Max Kirsch from the Lycée classique de Diekirch. They were guided throughout the year by teacher Pitt Schneider and mentor Clémentine Offner.

Onsko

Onsko, representing the higher education level, participated in the JA Startup competition, demonstrating strong innovation capabilities and remarkable market potential. The Onsko team earned the opportunity to compete at the European level by winning first prize in the national Young Enterprise Project (YEP).

YEP is a program offered at the higher education level in which students work in teams to develop a business plan based on an innovative product or service idea. Unlike the Mini-Entreprises program, this initiative does not require the product or service to be market-ready.

The Onsko team is composed of Pierre Felten, Michael Marques Figueiredo, and Giovanni Isabel Kemevuako, students in the “Digital Content” BTS programme at Lycée Nic-Biever Dudelange. Their project is a cultural platform dedicated to local Luxembourgish art, where private individuals and professionals can sell, buy, or rent artworks. The aim is to promote local art by making it accessible and visible through a local community and dedicated events. The project’s strengths lie in its strong local focus, its response to a real need, its European development potential, and the use of AI to help users visualize artworks in their own space.

The students were supported throughout the year by their teachers Jessica David and Jeff Lemmer, as well as their mentor, Sébastien Jungen.

Main Awards

The “JA Europe Company of the Year Award” (secondary education level) recognizes mini-companies that have best demonstrated their business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit following their participation in the JA Company program. This year, the award was won by Verifyid, a project from Denmark.
The “JA Europe Start-Up of the Year Award” (higher education level) honors the most viable business, with a focus on financial, social, or cultural value and potential for growth. This year’s winner was Pigi from Albania.
The “JA Europe Innovation of the Year Award” (for both education levels) recognizes mini-companies and start-ups that have developed the most innovative businesses and solutions with real future investment potential. The most innovative start-up of the year was Lactozen from Belgium, and the most innovative mini-company of the year was Trawl Tech from Norway.

[1] Gen-E, 2024 (https://gen-e.eu/ja-europe-innovation-of-the-year-upper-secondary/)
[2] Gen-E, 2024 (https://gen-e.eu/ja-europe-start-up-of-the-year-university-level/)

Signature Awards

In addition to the main awards, the teams participating in the competition also had the opportunity to win several Signature Awards (thematic prizes):

Upper Secondary Level

Public Choice Award: Kevin AI – Georgia
Foodtech Innovation Award By EIT Food: Mind Force – Ukraine
FedEx Access Awar: Bioanglers – Finland
Digital Innovation Award: Pulsepal – Albania
Green Manufacturing Award: Acquabrain – Albania
Intel AI Innovation Award: Seedsap – Denmark
Brilliant Stem Innovation Award: Orbis – Romania
Best Application Of Project Management Award: Looplab – Greece
The Innovation in Energy Award: Power2z – Denmark
Foodathon 2024: Carbon Trail – Slovakia
Delta Air Lines Sustainable Innovation Award: Trawl Tech – Norway
Manpowergroup Ready For Work Award: Aima – Slovakia
PMIEF Best Application Of Project Management Award: Elevatex – Bulgaria
The Unicredit Foundation “Re-Power Your Future” Award: T-Buddy – Serbia
Titan Future Horizons Award: Peellastic – Cyprus

University Level

Avanade Digital Innovation Award: Lokutor – Spain
European Market Expansion Award: Bionova – Georgia
Green Manufacturing Award: Teslari – Andorra
Fedex Access Award: Medimynd – Malta
BNY Resilient Futures Award: Link3rs – Spain
The Euroclear Financial Excellence Award: Ecowrap – Netherlands
EY AI Innovators Award: Cooltivate – Czech Republic
Innovation In Sustainability Award: Ecowrap – Netherlands

Lycée Aline Mayrisch Receives the Entrepreneurial School Award

Lycée Aline Mayrisch was honored with the “TES (The Entrepreneurial School) Award”. The school was represented by Sandra Thibeau in Athens. JA Europe selected 10 European schools to receive the Entrepreneurial School label. This label recognizes schools that have shown a strong ability to foster entrepreneurial spirit at all levels while preparing students for the world of work.