The TAKEOFF Seed Funds Awards has now - in its fifth year -
become a showcase of unique business ideas from students and
researchers at the University of Malta participating for grants
totaling up to €100,000 from the Ministry for the Economy,
Investment and Small Businesses. This year's edition had
thirty-eight submissions with seven start-ups eventually being
chosen and going through the mentoring process at TAKEOFF,
guaranteeing these are not simply short-term projects but
sustainable enterprises.
Making seed money available to budding start-ups at the
University is part of the paradigm shift the Ministry supports in
its mission statement to expose more people to the transformational
power of more entrepreneurship. In his address during the ceremony,
Minister Cardona described how the government is implementing this
exercise through regulations and taxation, the availability of
credit and education, intellectual property rights, and social
mobility. An economy can