Transfer
The Ruhr region offers ideal conditions for successful research-oriented entrepreneurship, including access to funding and knowledge transfer. With its numerous universities and strong companies, there is a diverse ecosystem for start-ups and transfer that is increasingly gaining momentum.
Some UA Ruhr initiatives supporting knowledge transfer and startups include:
BRYCK Startup Alliance
BRYCK Startup Alliance is a joint venture of RAG-Stiftung, the University Alliance Ruhr (Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen), Initiativkreis Ruhr and the innovation hub BRYCK. It unites research excellence, industrial strength, growth capital and hands-on startup experience into one powerful entrepreneurial force. The alliance has been officially selected by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as a national Startup Factory — entrusted with accelerating science-based innovation in Germany and Europe.
The BRYCK Startup Alliance aims to establish a high-performance startup factory in the heart of the Ruhr region. The goal is to mobilise at least 1,000 spin-offs, over 200 scaling deep-tech startups and over €1 billion in venture capital within the ecosystem by 2030. The initiative focuses specifically on three business areas: Future Industry, Future Life Science, and Future Cities. These include, for example, developments in intelligent production and logistics systems, renewable raw materials, personalised medicine and smart cities. Various programmes are planned for the different phases of company formation, including scalable accelerator programmes for deep-tech startups.
Further information on the BRYCK Startup Alliance can be found at the following links:
https://bryckstartupalliance.com/
https://www.uaruhr.de/en/newsdetail/bryck-startup-alliance-legt-ehrgeiziges-programm-vor-57702/
Cooperation with BRYCK
Since 2023, the UA Ruhr has been cooperating with the start-up and innovation hub BRYCK, which has already supported numerous start-ups on topics such as energy, health and hydrogen.
The start-up and innovation hub BRYCK was founded by the RAG-Stiftung in early 2022. BRYCK brings together founders, investors, scientists and thought leaders from companies with one goal: to shape a future worth living. In September 2023, BRYCK, the RAG-Stiftung and the University Alliance Ruhr signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support them on their journey.
The common goals are:
- Strengthening start-up activities at one of Germany's largest and strongest science locations
- Increase start-up motivation and an entrepreneurial mindset at universities
- To introduce students and researchers to start-up projects in order to facilitate more successful start-ups
Founder Initiative Ruhr
The Founder Initiative Ruhr was launched in 2017 as a joint platform of the University Alliance Ruhr to coordinate activities in start-up support and knowledge and technology transfer and to initiate new projects.
The initiative is supported by the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer at TU Dortmund University (CET), the Worldfactory at Ruhr University Bochum and the Center for Start-ups and Innopreneurship at the University of Duisburg-Essen (GUIDE).
As leading educational institutions and nuclei for innovations, inventions and research- and science-based start-ups in the Ruhr metropolitan region, the CET, the Worldfactory and the GUIDE draw on entrepreneurship knowledge in research and teaching. Thanks in particular to the awards as Excellence Startup Center.NRW and EXIST potential, extensive transfer and start-up structures have been established at the three universities in recent years, which is why the UA Ruhr is now a nucleus for technology-based start-up projects.
Goals of Founder Initiative Ruhr:
- Increasing regional, national and international visibility
- Establishment and expansion of a cross-university network
- Opening up events on entrepreneurship and start-ups in the UA Ruhr teaching and learning space
- Increasing the number of innovative start-ups in the academic environment through joint formats
- Enabling large venture capital rounds
- Promoting cooperation between start-ups and industry
Further information on transfer at the UA Ruhr can be found here: