The Neu-Ulm and Biberach Universities of Applied Sciences, the Ulm University of Technology and the University of Ulm will jointly strengthen the entrepreneurial potential of regional talents in the StartupSÜD network. This is made possible by funds from the Federal Ministry of Economics as part of the EXIST-Potentiale funding measure.
The festive announcement of the funding decisions took place on 3 December 2019 in Berlin. Prof. Dr. Thomas Bayer, Vice President for Internationalization and Transfer at the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU), only learned at the event that the joint application had been selected for funding by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. "I am very pleased to have been awarded the contract for our StartupSÜD joint project, with which we will establish a start-up culture at the HNU and InnoSÜD partner universities and specifically promote the generation of innovations and start-ups". Prof. Dr. Uta M. Feser, President of the HNU, adds: "We have been setting trends in entrepreneurship, design thinking and start-ups with international partners for years and can now systematically make this expertise available to young talents from our region".
A key advantage of the new StartupSÜD network is that the participating universities share their resources and infrastructures for those interested in setting up their own businesses ("powered by shared resources"). To this end, teaching concepts and services, laboratories and co-working areas with support staff and digital resources are to be shared. The potential for this exists in the many years of successful cooperation within the network and in the already existing start-up-supporting structures and networks, which must be expanded and professionalised. In addition, up to 20,000 students can be reached jointly. The network partners want to realize their projects by 2024.
In addition to the central network measures, Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences will realise four individual sub-projects: "Inter-faculty courses", "Digital Start-up University", "HNU Start-up Experimental Meadow" and "Networked International Start-up University".
About EXIST-Potentials
Around 220 colleges and universities from all over Germany, and thus a significant proportion of the country's higher education landscape, participated in the programme launched at the end of 2018 to strengthen the academic start-up culture. The project proposals were evaluated by three expert juries.
Further information: (DE) https://www.exist.de/DE/Programm/Exist-Gruendungskultur/EXIST-Potentiale/inhalt.html (opens in a new window)
