The Lehmkuhl Fund was founded on 1 May 1920. The object of the fund is to promote Norwegian business and industry ‘including agriculture, forestry and fisheries’.

The fund awards grants to NHH students or recently graduated candidates who show exceptional abilities that can promote Norwegian business and industry in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship. The purpose is to acknowledge a student who has made particular efforts in a field of practical importance in a business context.

Criteria

In principle, the Lehmkuhl grant should be awarded for a specific master’s thesis in the field of innovation or entrepreneurship.

The master’s thesis must be of high academic quality, should either be related to a new product/service or to new business models and must directly or indirectly contribute to innovation. 

Master’s theses submitted in the autumn semester the previous year or in the spring semester the same year as NHH awards the grant are eligible for nomination.

Business ideas launched in other ways than in a master’s thesis can also be nominated. It is not a requirement that the business idea has been or will be implemented.

The academic staff at NHH nominate candidates for the grant. Employees who teach or supervise students in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship are particularly encouraged to nominate candidates.

A committee established by NHH and the Board of the Lehmkuhl fund will consider the candidates and elect a winner.

Deadline for nominations is 31 August. (In 2024 the deadline has been moved to 4 September.)

In principle, the committee awards one grant each year, but it does not have to be awarded every year. The committee decides from year to year whether the grant will be awarded. The grounds for assessment include how many candidates have been nominated and the quality of the nominees.

The grant is in the amount of NOK 50,000.

The committee can award an additional amount to ideas that are so promising and thoroughly prepared that they should be commercialised without delay. The condition is that the candidate contributes to this themselves. Any such additional amount is to be used as start-up capital.

The name of the winner is announced and the grant awarded at the end of September during the annual Lehmkuhl Conference. The conference marks Kristofer Lehmkuhl’s birthday on 26 September.