Innovation Week

The Innovation Week is organised within the framework of the "Research in Germany" initiative. "Research in Germany – Land of Ideas" is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and serves to promote German educational and research institutes across the world.

PARTNERS

DAAD

The DAAD is the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers. The motto of the DAAD is “Change by Exchange” – a concept that applies to more than the students and researchers we support. For the DAAD as a funding organisation, change means welcoming the challenges of this dynamic process and participating in shaping it. We support academic exchange through:

• Scholarships for the Best – supporting students and researchers in Germany and abroad who have demonstrated outstanding academic merit and wish to assume responsibility
• Structures for Internationalisation – creating university structures which promote international qualification, mobility and dialogue, and thereby improve the quality of research and instruction
• Expertise for Academic Collaborations – making our expertise in educational cultures and academic systems available in order to facilitate collaboration between academics and institutions.

The DAAD stimulates internationalisation and global responsibility. It acts as an independent intermediary between various partners and their interests. The real motors of change, however, are students and researchers who cross borders every day through their work, and the institutions of higher education which support them in their commitment. We owe our success to all of those, who share our goals and actively support us in our efforts.

DAAD homepage

TU9 – German Universities of Technology

Excellence in Engineering and Science Made in Germany

TU9 is the Alliance of leading Universities of Technology in Germany: RWTH Aachen University, Technische Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Technical University of Darmstadt, Technische Universität Dresden, Leibniz University Hannover, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich, and University of Stuttgart.
Tradition, excellence, and innovation are the hallmarks of TU9 Universities.

Founded during the Industrial Age, they contributed decisively to technological progress back then and continue to do so today. They enjoy an outstanding reputation around the world as renowned research and teaching institutions that promote the transfer of knowledge and technology between universities and practice. As such, they train exceptional young academics for careers in science, business, and administration and assume social responsibility.
The excellent research and teaching at TU9 Universities are based on independence, plurality, and freedom of expression. TU9 Universities have always been places of intellectual and cultural diversity where internationalization and integration are a matter of course.

TU9 Universities combine cutting-edge international research with innovative application. They generate outstanding research outcomes that benefit science and society. This is reflected in top-notch publications, top rankings for third-party funding acquisition, and their successes in the German Excellence Strategy.
Close integration of research and application is reflected in numerous collaborations with small, medium and large business enterprises. To foster commercial application, TU9 Universities support patents, licenses, and the start-up sector. In doing so, they serve as regional economic powerhouses and drivers of German innovation.
TU9 Universities are not only a key element of the German science and innovation landscape, but also contribute to the higher education policy debate.

TU9 homepage

This year's Innovation Week will be hosted by

RWTH Aachen University
Technische Universität Berlin
TUM – The Entrepreneurial University

Further information will follow soon. 

RWTH Aachen University

RWTH Aachen University is a place where the future of our industrialised world is thought out. The University is proving to be a hotspot with increasing international recognition where innovative answers to global challenges are developed.
RWTH Aachen supports researchers, inventors and founders of RWTH Aachen University with individual and diverse service offers helping them develop their ideas and research results to a market-ready technology.
Furthermore, we help business partners of RWTH Aachen University find their way within the university landscape and support them in their search for and cooperation with suitable research partners.

For more information please visit:
RWTH Innovation

Technische Universität Berlin
Centre for Entrepreneurship of Technische Universität Berlin

At the Centre for Entrepreneurship, we approach entrepreneurship according to the triple bottom line of sustainable development – by taking economic, social, and ecological aspects into account. In line of Technische Universität Berlin’s goal to develop science and technology for the benefit of our society and tackle contemporary challenges without further burdening future generations, the CfE focuses on educating, researching and enabling triple impact entrepreneurship to be put into practice and manage the transfer of ideas from research to market. The CfE consists of the Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management as well as the startup and technology transfer services. Since 2007, the CfE has supported scientists, students and alumni of TU Berlin to develop innovative research-based ideas into business concepts. The CfE is the university’s port of call for all those interested in founding their own company, providing counselling and support services in the areas of company formation, as well as knowledge and technology transfer. At the CfE, we have an excellent network of experts and investors at our disposal in order to connect potential founders with well-established companies. We currently support approximately 20 to 30 early stage tech startups per year, particularly with pre seed funding and educational training. Altogether we have supported about 150 startups since 2007. The CfE further offers office space as well as lab space for chemistry related startups in particular, and runs a prototyping lab. Our latest addition since its opening in the beginning of 2019 is our coworking space at the heart of Berlin’s university startup ecosystem – our event and co-working space EINS on 1,000 square metres. EINS stands for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Network and Sustainability. During the last five years we have established a milestone-based systematic startup incubation program to increase the survival rate of our startups and to standardize our support activities. Furthermore, during the last two years we introduced the so-called triple impact strategy, focusing on startups who are not only interested in economic success but also in creating value for society and the environment.

For more information please visit:
www.entrepreneurship.tu-berlin.de

TUM – The Entrepreneurial University

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading universities in research & teaching. As the Entrepreneurial University, it doesn’t just want to understand the world – it wants to improve it. That is why the entire university revolves around one core goal: innovation. TUM’s unparalleled range of disciplines covers engineering and natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, management and social sciences – a combination found nowhere else in Europe. TUM leverages this enormous potential by intensively and intelligently combining the different subjects. This inspires modern fields of research extending from bioengineering to machine intelligence. At the same time, TUM links technological change more closely with social, political and ethical issues than other technical universities. Its outstanding degree programs are strongly oriented to research and, at the same time, tightly coupled to practical experience. Managers regularly choose TUM as 1 of the 10 best universities worldwide for the quality of graduates (Global Employability University Rankings). TUM offers amazing opportunities at every level of study and research – starting with the first semester right through to professorship. It invests more than other universities in the professional development of individual talent. TUM is an international university with a high proportion of foreign students and researchers as well as more than 150 partner universities around the globe. With the founding of TUM Asia in 2012 in Singapore, it became the first German university to establish an overseas campus. TUM also has offices in Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, San Francisco, and São Paulo. TUM builds long-term research partnerships with the most innovative global players. More & more companies are establishing roots directly on campus. In 2006, 2012, & 2019, TUM was awarded the title of “University of Excellence” in recognition of its innovative, dynamic culture. Every year more than 70 technology-based companies are established at TUM – the result of a support infrastructure unrivalled in Germany. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation, support new companies with programs tailored to each phase of the start-up process – from writing the business model to management training, and from market entry to a possible IPO. Up to 30 teams can use offices in the TUM Incubator to prepare the launch of their companies. UnternehmerTUM operates its own venture capital fund. Its MakerSpace provides a 1,500 square meter high-tech workshop for building prototypes and its Bio.Kitchen offers a biotechnology lab for experiments. The start-up community, from Germany & abroad, meets at UnternehmerTUM’s annual Techfest Munich and at hackathons. A tightly-knit network includes business, investors and science. One floor above the Incubator the TUM Entrepreneurship Research Institute investigates how start-ups can become successful. TUM even travels with especially promising start-up teams to Silicon Valley for two weeks or to its partners in the EuroTech Universities Alliance.

For more information please visit:
Entrepreneurship at TUM

Technical University of Darmstadt - HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Center

With their networking platform, HIGHEST the Innovation and Start-up Center, the TU Darmstadt offers a wide range of services for setting up a company, as well as an excellent environment and diverse support for the protection and exploitation of intellectual property. They advise on patenting and exploitation strategies and accompany young founders in the process of invention and patent application. HIGHEST provides support in exploitation activities, arrange company contacts and help in the search for funding or project partners – confidentially and independently.

„Transferring innovations that make the world a better place into practice - that is what drives us every day. Creating the best conditions for scientists, students, investors, the economy and the entire ecosystem is our major goal. Every successful start-up and every patent that makes our cooperation partners' products and solutions better brings us one step closer to this goal.“ Harald Holzer, CEO Highest

For more information please visit:
TU Darmstadt-HIGHEST

Technische Universität Dresden - TU Dresden Transfer Office

Alongside research and teaching, the Technische Universität Dresden is committed to the transfer of knowledge. New scientific insights, processes and technologies are to be made available to industry actors, business and society through an effective and fruitful transfer process. The successful implementation of innovative research results, in particular the commercialisation of patens, creating pioneering and forward-looking products and services strengthens the innovation drive. The Transfer Office actively promotes the intensive co-operation with industry, political and societal partners.

The Transfer Office is part of TU Dresden Institution Strategy and is funded through the State and Federal Excellence Initiative.

For more information please visit:
TU Dresden - Research & Transfer

Leibniz Universität Hannover - Starting Business

The start-up service Starting Business at Leibniz Universität Hannover supports and assists the realisation of innovative ideas into efficient business concepts. The aim is to raise awareness among members of Leibniz University Hannover of the possibility of self-employment as an alternative to dependent employment, to mobilise start-up ideas, to implement qualification measures, as well as to advise and support company founders with their projects.

Anyone wishing to start a business, develop their own ideas or join an existing founding team will receive free, professional support:

• Students

• University staff

• Researchers and academics

• Alumni

The start-up service supports the realisation of business ideas throughout the entire start-up process - from concept development to market launch. In addition to providing sound advice, we ensure that the projects are integrated into the regional ecosystem for founders.

For more information please visit:
Business start-ups from the university – Leibniz Universität Hannover
starting Business

©

RWTH Aachen/Peter Winandy

RWTH Aachen University

RWTH Aachen University is a place where the future of our industrialised world is thought out. The University is proving to be a hotspot with increasing international recognition where innovative answers to global challenges are developed.
RWTH Aachen supports researchers, inventors and founders of RWTH Aachen University with individual and diverse service offers helping them develop their ideas and research results to a market-ready technology.
Furthermore, we help business partners of RWTH Aachen University find their way within the university landscape and support them in their search for and cooperation with suitable research partners.

For more information please visit:
RWTH Innovation
 

KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Innovation, i.e. developing applications for industry from scientific findings, is one of the three core tasks of KIT besides research and teaching. To cope with the global challenges facing humankind, our trend-setting research activities in the areas of energy, mobility, and information are to give rise to concrete developments and products that contribute to general prosperity and benefit. Thanks to many good partnerships with industry and economy, we succeed in doing so quite often. At KIT, the way from the research finding to the product is shorter! As part of KIT’s sense of community, we particularly promote the entrepreneurial spirit of our researchers and students.
Business start-ups and entrepreneurship is part of our spirit: Whether student start-up or scientific spin-off, there is hardly any other place where the path from research result to product is shorter than at KIT. This is due to the fact that we not only impart knowledge about entrepreneurship and technology management, but we also support and accompany founders in a very concrete way.

For more information please visit:
KIT homepage
KIT Gründerschmiede

University of Stuttgart

The University of Stuttgart is one of the leading technically oriented universities in Germany with global significance. It sees itself as a center of university-based, non-university, and industrial research. Furthermore, it takes a role as a guarantor of research-based teaching, focused on quality and holism. The university promotes the transfer of knowledge and technologies to society in all their profile- and competence areas as well as their emerging fields. The „Stuttgarter Weg” (Stuttgart Way) means an interdisciplinary integration of engineering, natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences based on the fundamentals of cutting-edge research at a disciplinary level. Our vision is "Intelligent systems for a sustainable society".
The university supports the transition of its enormous wealth of knowledge and technology to industry and society in various ways. Its tradition of being home to excellent research and visionary inventors strengthens the region as a whole. The University of Stuttgart is an excellent place to reflect upon the state of society and effectively paves the way for outstanding innovations.

For more information please visit:
University of Stuttgart-Knowledge and technology transfer

Technische Universität Berlin
Centre for Entrepreneurship of Technische Universität Berlin

At the Centre for Entrepreneurship, we approach entrepreneurship according to the triple bottom line of sustainable development – by taking economic, social, and ecological aspects into account. In line of Technische Universität Berlin’s goal to develop science and technology for the benefit of our society and tackle contemporary challenges without further burdening future generations, the CfE focuses on educating, researching and enabling triple impact entrepreneurship to be put into practice and manage the transfer of ideas from research to market. The CfE consists of the Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management as well as the startup and technology transfer services. Since 2007, the CfE has supported scientists, students and alumni of TU Berlin to develop innovative research-based ideas into business concepts. The CfE is the university’s port of call for all those interested in founding their own company, providing counselling and support services in the areas of company formation, as well as knowledge and technology transfer. At the CfE, we have an excellent network of experts and investors at our disposal in order to connect potential founders with well-established companies. We currently support approximately 20 to 30 early stage tech startups per year, particularly with pre seed funding and educational training. Altogether we have supported about 150 startups since 2007. The CfE further offers office space as well as lab space for chemistry related startups in particular, and runs a prototyping lab. Our latest addition since its opening in the beginning of 2019 is our coworking space at the heart of Berlin’s university startup ecosystem – our event and co-working space EINS on 1,000 square metres. EINS stands for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Network and Sustainability. During the last five years we have established a milestone-based systematic startup incubation program to increase the survival rate of our startups and to standardize our support activities. Furthermore, during the last two years we introduced the so-called triple impact strategy, focusing on startups who are not only interested in economic success but also in creating value for society and the environment.

For more information please visit:
www.entrepreneurship.tu-berlin.de

Technische Universität Braunschweig

The Technical University Braunschweig lies at the heart of Germany. About 20.000 students are enrolled and 3.700 university employees are count. Moreover, 120 institutes are affiliated to the following six faculties: • Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Faculty (Economics) • Faculty of Life Sciences • Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences • Faculty of Mechanical Engineering • Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Physics • Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences The history of the Entrepreneurship Hub dates back to the cooperation agreement between Technical University Braunschweig and Ostfalia University established on 30 August 2007. This agreement aims to promote startups from both universities and to establish a sustainable startup culture in our region. As a basis of this new cooperation, a joint “Chair for Entrepreneurship” was established in order to inspire as many students, alumni and academic staff as possible to found a company and to convey them the knowledge they require. Therefore, we offer an extensive range of teaching and information for both founders and those interested in starting a business. Students, alumni and academic staff can also profit from individual coaching in the Entrepreneurship Hub, free office space in the startup incubator, support in raising startup capital and furthermore benefit from our excellent network. Moreover, we are doing research for new entrepreneurship impulses. Our main research areas are entrepreneurial ecosystem, business model innovation and digitalisation. For us, innovation is not an abstract term. We exemplify innovation through how we act. It requires us to develop a creative, independent and self-.reliant attitude to topics, questions and problems. We are committed to strengthening and promoting a lively and interdisciplinary university startup culture in our region.

For more information please visit:
https://www.entrepreneurship-hub.org/

TUM – The Entrepreneurial University

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading universities in research & teaching. As the Entrepreneurial University, it doesn’t just want to understand the world – it wants to improve it. That is why the entire university revolves around one core goal: innovation. TUM’s unparalleled range of disciplines covers engineering and natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, management and social sciences – a combination found nowhere else in Europe. TUM leverages this enormous potential by intensively and intelligently combining the different subjects. This inspires modern fields of research extending from bioengineering to machine intelligence. At the same time, TUM links technological change more closely with social, political and ethical issues than other technical universities. Its outstanding degree programs are strongly oriented to research and, at the same time, tightly coupled to practical experience. Managers regularly choose TUM as 1 of the 10 best universities worldwide for the quality of graduates (Global Employability University Rankings). TUM offers amazing opportunities at every level of study and research – starting with the first semester right through to professorship. It invests more than other universities in the professional development of individual talent. TUM is an international university with a high proportion of foreign students and researchers as well as more than 150 partner universities around the globe. With the founding of TUM Asia in 2012 in Singapore, it became the first German university to establish an overseas campus. TUM also has offices in Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, San Francisco, and São Paulo. TUM builds long-term research partnerships with the most innovative global players. More & more companies are establishing roots directly on campus. In 2006, 2012, & 2019, TUM was awarded the title of “University of Excellence” in recognition of its innovative, dynamic culture. Every year more than 70 technology-based companies are established at TUM – the result of a support infrastructure unrivalled in Germany. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation, support new companies with programs tailored to each phase of the start-up process – from writing the business model to management training, and from market entry to a possible IPO. Up to 30 teams can use offices in the TUM Incubator to prepare the launch of their companies. UnternehmerTUM operates its own venture capital fund. Its MakerSpace provides a 1,500 square meter high-tech workshop for building prototypes and its Bio.Kitchen offers a biotechnology lab for experiments. The start-up community, from Germany & abroad, meets at UnternehmerTUM’s annual Techfest Munich and at hackathons. A tightly-knit network includes business, investors and science. One floor above the Incubator the TUM Entrepreneurship Research Institute investigates how start-ups can become successful. TUM even travels with especially promising start-up teams to Silicon Valley for two weeks or to its partners in the EuroTech Universities Alliance.

For more information please visit:
Entrepreneurship at TUM