VU start-up Niluk concerned about mental health of young adults

In March VU start-up Niluk joined the prestigious hackathon UpdateDeutschland, a German ‘laboratory for the future’, opened by Bundeskanzlerin Dr. Angela Merkel.

In a 48-hour sprint, participants developed creative solutions to the nation’s most pressing challenges together with partners from all federal levels and actors from business, science and civil society.

The team of Niluk joined the mission, because they are deeply concerned about the mental health of young adults. The startup developed an app to combat loneliness. Co-founder Elena Köstler: ‘Even before COVID-19, at least one third of all young adults indicated they felt lonely. Imagine the situation today!’. After a spontaneous pitch on the main stage of the event UpdateDeutschland, many doors were opened for the startup, such as contact with interested large companies.

Niluk is currently researching the mental health status of young adults, and the more data available, the more impact they will be able to make. Therefor the request to all VU colleagues under the age of 35: support Niluk’s mission by completing this–max 4 mins.!– survey.

To end with a quote from the start-up: ‘It’s not what you have in life, but who.’ Social contact is extremely important to combat loneliness, especially in these times!