Lizzy Award gives four starting WUR entrepreneurs a chance to grow

They each appeared on stage last Wednesday to receive their cheque: Milo Kleijnjan of OmnoMyco, Marlies Willemsen-Regelink of Buiten Bloeiers, Iepe Bouw of Nettle Project and Jorid Floriach-Clark. They can call themselves winners of the Lizzy Award 2026, a prize created by WUR alumnus Peter Poortinga to support starting entrepreneurs with impactful ideas. Especially in this start-up phase, without a tangible concept or proof of urgency in the market, financial support is difficult to find but indispensable for the development of the company. As a result, a lot of ideas end up on the shelf instead of on the market every year. 

The prize is awarded by University Fund Wageningen annually since 2024 during the Wageningen Impact Expo. During this event, visitors can meet various starting entrepreneurs who are active within Starthub Wageningen, the university's entrepreneurship hub. 

The winners of the Lizzy Award 2026 may have diverse ideas, but they have at least one thing in common: they all want to make a difference in the world with their Wageningen knowledge.

Milo Kleijnjan, alumnus of WUR and founder of OmnoMyco, does this with wild mushroom species. These are generally difficult to grow but have great potential to replace meat. Kleijnman is now developing a range of edible wild mushroom varieties, such as 'chicken of the wood', into reliable crops that can be grown all year round, offering sustainable and tasty alternatives to meat. 

Marlies Willemsen-Regelink, Project Leader Food Education at WUR, wants to connect children with nature through outdoor education and practice-oriented learning experiences with her Outdoor Bloomers initiative. In this way, she hopes to slow down or reverse the current trend, in which children spend less and less time outdoors and have less contact with the natural environment.

Iepe Bouw, a student of the AMS Institute, creates circular solutions with The Nettle Project in which nettles are processed into high-quality textile fibers that are suitable for spinning. He uses everything from the plant, turning native weeds into valuable raw materials.

Jordi Floriach-Clark, PhD candidate at WUR in Plant Nanotechnology, is developing technology in his startup ChemPanoptics for better early screening of substances that combat harmful fungi in agriculture and healthcare. 

During the Impact Expo, a new fund was also launched: the Ripple Fund. This fund focuses specifically on entrepreneurs with a socially driven initiative. With the addition of this fund, University Fund Wageningen and WUR can increase the number of innovative minds from WUR who are supported to develop into impactful entrepreneurs.