Entrepreneurial Education and Innovation. The Ulysses Contest is a digital student competition, launched at the European level, aimed at stimulating innovative solutions to problems affecting family businesses, derived from student proposals. The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano is one of the founding partners of the Ulysses Contest. It was organized again this year in collaboration with scientific institutions and companies from Austria, Hungary, and Germany.

In the second and final stage of the competition, five teams of students—the best from the previous stage—worked on the HOLLU business case study. HOLLU, a family business based in Tirol, Austria, offers innovative and high-quality cleaning and hygiene services for both B2C and B2B sectors. The company is strongly committed to sustainability and recognizes its responsibility to create growth and value for its stakeholders and the regional community. Team 18, consisting of Carlo Juan Rabino, Elena Vecchiatti, Jonaitis Mindaugas, Pietro D'Agaro, and Simone Faieta from unibz, worked on the challenges of impact planning, analysis and reporting, as well as measuring and evaluating results and impact.

After completing a written case study analysis, the student teams were asked to present their results live before a jury of experts during the final ceremony in early June. The jury, composed of representatives from the partner institutions (University of Szeged, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and University of Vienna) as well as Eduard Holzknecht, Head of System Management at HOLLU, evaluated the analyses and solutions proposed by the students.

"The Ulysses Contest reconfirmed the success of its first edition, even exceeding expectations. We managed to involve 126 bachelor's and master's degree students from 21 countries. Interestingly, it was a mixed team of bachelor's and master's degree students with various backgrounds, genders and nationalities that won the contest, highlighting the value of diversity and inclusion. Certainly, the students came out of this experience enriched, and we are keen on organizing the Ulysses Contest again next year", says Paola Rovelli, an assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics and coordinator of the Ulysses Project for unibz.

The three winning teams of this year's competition are:

1. **1st Place**: Team 18 from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Carlo Juan Rabino, Elena Vecchiatti, Jonaitis Mindaugas, Pietro D'Agaro, Simone Faieta)
2. **2nd Place**: Team 7 from MCI (Johanna Bruckner, Lisa Walla, Mariella Brunner, Victoria Albertini)
3. **3rd Place**: Team 26 from the University of Szeged (Dominika Gábor, Endre Véh, Gerg Vincze, Maja Komlós)

A special mention also goes to Team 17 from unibz (Federico Zamboni, Giada Dentone, Nicolò Costan, Riccardo Camarda), who managed to reach the final stage.

(zil)