Places for entrepreneurship at The Green Village

The Green Village, located on TU Delft’s campus, is a unique field lab for sustainable innovation where innovation comes to life. This year, during the Entrepreneurship Awards 2025, we will award The Green Village Award, offering one startup the chance to test their innovation for a full year in a real-life setting.

“We believe in learning by doing and are allowed to make mistakes so that they can learn from it,” says Roby van Praag, Project Manager at The Green Village and TU Delft alumna in both architecture and building technology. “Here, you get to find out what truly works outside the lab.”

The Green Village is more than just a test site. Eight homes are permanently inhabited, allowing innovators to receive direct feedback from real users. “You’re not testing in isolation. Residents, researchers, and fellow innovators all contribute to your growth,” Roby explains. “Even our office, the ‘Office lab’, is part of the experiment.” Various government officials and policymakers also visit regularly to see which innovations are emerging and what space is needed within current laws and regulations. If something is not allowed under existing legislation, that obviously prevents scaling up.

The award offers access to state-of-the-art data, infrastructure, and a strong network. Plus, without the regular building regulations on-site, testing is faster and more flexile. This is always on the condition that it’s safe, otherwise, it’s not allowed here either. That’s important to mention. “We support everything, from placing your prototype to finding the right subsidies or even insurers.”

Winners also benefit from personal guidance throughout the year and a warm handover into the next phase. “What you learn here goes far beyond technical results,” Roby says. “It’s the human feedback, the ecosystem, our connections and that’s where the real value lies.”

One year. One place. Endless opportunity.