University of Bremen: Start-up radar: University of Bremen at the forefront
When it comes to start-up funding, the University of Bremen is one of the top universities in Germany. In the current Founding Radar 2020 of the Stifterverband, it ranks 11th among the large universities.
Since 2012, the Stifterverband has been observing the climate for business start-ups in the start-up radar and shows which universities are particularly good at promoting business start-ups. Topics such as networking, internationalization and diversity among those interested in founding and founding personalities were the focus of the current edition of the Gründungsradar. The results of the nationwide comparison confirm the activities of the University of Bremen and the BRIDGE association.
If Bremen ranks 11th in the overall ranking of the large universities with more than 15,000 students, the success with individual methodological modules is even slightly greater. It scores particularly well in the sub-areas of anchoring the topic of start-ups at the university, start-up activities and start-up support programs as well as networking in the field of start-ups.
Vice Rector: Success through networks and internationalization
Professor Jutta Günther, Vice Rector for Research, Young Academics and Transfer at the University of Bremen, is delighted with the good results again. “We have again proven our position among the top German leaders with exemplary performance and have now been at the forefront for several years. This is a great success for our start-up consultants and our established offer within the framework of the university network ‘BRIDGE’ ”.
Dr. Martin Heinlein, head of the UniTransfer knowledge and technology transfer office and managing director of BRIDGE, emphasizes: “The trend towards internationalization and events in English was also quickly taken up and implemented in the BRIDGE network.” In addition, BRIDGE advises around 160 start-up projects per year and offers over 40 events for start-up awareness and qualification with over 900 participants on the topic of founding a business (e.g. start-up workout or start-up lounge).
Since 2007, the network has raised around nine million euros in funding from the nationwide EXIST program to support a large number of science startups. The “CAMPUSiDEEN” competition with prizes worth around 15,000 euros rounds off the offer. Since 2003, over 700 contributions have been submitted in 16 years. This makes CAMPUSiDEEN one of the most continuous competitions of its kind nationwide.
Many start-up-related events also in teaching
“It’s nice that we now have numerous start-up-related events in our curricular teaching. In 2019 there were around 25 with a total of more than 1,000 participants. That runs through all departments, ”says Heinlein happily.
A particularly large number of events take place at the Chair for Medium-Sized Enterprises, Business Start-ups and Entrepreneurship (LEMEX). “From our student projects, more and more start-ups emerge, and there is a great, increasing interest in the start-up scene and in the start-up mentality,” explains Professor Jörg Freiling, professor at LEMEX.
About the start-up funding at the university and in the state of Bremen
The BRIDGE university network is the central point of contact for students, alumni and members of Bremen universities on the subject of business start-ups. The BRIDGE university initiative is supported by the University of Bremen, the University of Bremen, the University of Bremerhaven, the Jacobs University Bremen and the Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH. BRIDGE aims to improve the start-up climate at all participating universities and to promote promising ideas with start-up potential at an early stage.
UniTransfer is the University of Bremen’s central interface between university, business and society. The experts at the knowledge and technology transfer office support cooperation and projects across the entire range of university subjects. This ranges from business start-ups, the exploitation of inventions or the placement of specialists and executives to the coordination of school projects to the management of the university foundation and university fundraising.
The Chair for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Business Start-ups and Entrepreneurship (LEMEX ) by Professor Jörg Freiling imparts relevant theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of business start-ups in numerous courses.