Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: KIT’s TRIANGEL Open Space is now open
Experience exciting research up close, talk to smart founders – or just enjoy a coffee – citizens can now do all this in the TRIANGEL Open Space of KIT on Kronenplatz. The new innovation, start-up and transfer center, in which science, business and society have been coming together since last year, was only officially opened on Friday, May 20th, due to the corona virus. The TRIANGEL opening program full of knowledge and visions with keynote speeches, discussion rounds, exhibition, art and culture runs until Saturday, May 21, 2022.
“As the research university in the Helmholtz Association, we create and impart knowledge for society and the environment. The exchange with the citizens is therefore very important to us. With the TRIANGEL Open Space, we now live this claim right in the heart of the city of Karlsruhe,” says the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka, on the occasion of the opening ceremony on Friday in the rooms at Kronenplatz directly on the South Campus of KIT.
“KIT is a unique institution with the claim to play in the league of the world’s best scientific and technical science institutions. With the TRIANGEL Open Space, it now also has a corresponding shop window on site,” says the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of KIT, Professor Michael Kaschke, former Chairman of the Management Board of Carl Zeiss AG.
“Efficient technology transfer, i.e. the successful transfer of research results into applicable solutions and products, can only succeed in a lively exchange between researchers, industry and society.
The TRIANGEL offers an ideal forum for this!” says entrepreneur Stefan Quandt, who is a member of the Supervisory Board and alumnus of KIT. With a donation of 830,000 euros, he made the realization of the TRIANGEL possible.
“As our largest employer and one of our most visible flagships in Karlsruhe, KIT has always maintained very good contact with the city and the population. Now the citizens can experience the unique combination of university research and large-scale research, for which the KIT stands, even more directly at a prominent location in the city center. That will further strengthen the exchange!” said the Mayor of Karlsruhe, Dr. Frank Mentrup.
“It is part of the spirit of KIT to transfer research into concrete developments and products and to promote the entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurship of our researchers and students. This is also what the TRIANGEL stands for as a place of dialogue with society,” says Professor Thomas Hirth, Vice President for Transfer and International Affairs at KIT.
Experience the TRIANGEL Open Space
In addition to exhibitions that make scientific topics tangible for everyone, innovation teams and start-ups can get direct feedback for their ideas and prototypes in the TRIANGEL in exchange with the public. On the other hand, the open space offers space for workshops, lectures, readings, panel discussions or cabaret and the café space for networking in a feel-good atmosphere, developing innovative ideas or simply relaxing with a drink.
The Stifterverband has already named the TRIANGEL Open Space a university gem. The joint initiative of companies and foundations to promote education, science and innovation distinguishes “future-oriented learning spaces”.