Green Light for Startup Factory UNITE: A Boost for Science-Based Spin-Offs

Brandenburg’s Minister of Science Dr Manja Schüle: “This is a great success for our region and will serve as a turbocharger for science-based spin-offs. We have long known that without science and research there can be no innovation, no successful economic development, and no answers to the pressing challenges of our time. With the joint Startup Factory UNITE, business and academia are now pooling their expertise across state borders—a strong signal in challenging times. I am looking forward to working together and promise: we will do everything we can to make UNITE a success. The real work begins now.”

Brandenburg’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Daniel Keller: “Our goal with the Brandenburg Start-up Initiative is to position Brandenburg as a hub for knowledge-based start-ups and to harness the potential of these innovative, growth-oriented companies for the state’s economic development. UNITE will play a central role in this effort. By combining academic strength with private-sector engagement, UNITE will generate important momentum for even more dynamic and sustainable start-up activity in Brandenburg and Berlin. The six start-up centers currently being established across the state will also contribute to this goal, helping promising start-ups enhance their national and international competitiveness and growth. These centers will play an important role within the UNITE ecosystem. We are particularly focusing on future-oriented sectors such as energy, digitalization, mobility, and the circular economy.”

Prof. Dr Matthias Barth, President of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) and Chair of the Brandenburg Conference of University Presidents: “The selection of UNITE as a nationally funded Startup Factory is a strong signal for Brandenburg’s higher education landscape. It enables even closer cross-state collaboration with partners from Berlin in the field of academic spin-offs. Innovative start-up ideas from Brandenburg will now gain significantly more visibility and support. For us at HNEE, this presents a tremendous opportunity to further expand our role as a driver of innovation for sustainable transformation. As one of the leading universities in the field of sustainable development, we actively contribute to shaping the economy and society of the future. We will use our academic expertise, strong networks, and many years of experience in supporting sustainable start-ups to promote innovative business models that create genuine social value.”

Prof. Dr. Gesine Grande, President of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg and Deputy Chair of the Brandenburg Conference of University Presidents: “The federal funding for our Startup Factory UNITE marks an important milestone toward developing a capital region that embraces innovation and a future-oriented start-up ecosystem. Through close cross-state collaboration among our universities, non-university research partners, business, and policymakers, we will be able to meet the challenges of our time with sustainable, forward-looking solutions. I am delighted that our concept prevailed in this national excellence competition.”

Prof. Dr. Susanne Buiter, Scientific Executive Board Member of the GFZ Helmholtz German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and UNITE Board Member for Science and Research in the Capital Region: “I am very pleased about the funding for our UNITE consortium in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Even in the run-up to this success, cooperation in start-up consulting and support intensified significantly thanks to this initiative—and with our selection as a Startup Factory, these efforts will now continue to develop sustainably. We expect UNITE to give a tremendous boost to start-up dynamics in the region. The GFZ is already one of the most active Helmholtz centers in terms of start-up activity. The new regional offerings in entrepreneurship, professional training, infrastructure, pilot customers, and financing will complement our existing activities in start-up support perfectly. That is why the GFZ, as the largest non-university research institution in Brandenburg, is a founding member of UNITE Sciences e.V.—and why I am personally committed to its success.”

The states of Berlin and Brandenburg aim to further develop the capital region into an internationally leading innovation and start-up hub through their joint project Startup Factory UNITE. UNITE brings together more than 40 partners from academia, business, politics, and society across both states. The project is being implemented by a consortium currently comprising around 20 universities and research institutions from Berlin and Brandenburg. Numerous companies have also pledged their support. From Brandenburg, representatives of BTU, HNEE, and GFZ serve on the board of UNITE Sciences e.V.

The federal government’s Startup Factories Lighthouse Competition seeks to significantly increase the number and quality of knowledge-based spin-offs in Germany. The goal is to establish supraregional and internationally visible Startup Factories as beacons that

• have strong links to universities and non-university research institutions with high innovation and talent potential,
• contribute to strengthening knowledge and technology transfer through public-private partnerships,
• operate on an entrepreneurial basis and develop sustainable business models, and
• generate a high number of growth-oriented start-ups.

Out of around 30 applications, ten projects were selected in a two-stage process and will now be implemented with multi-year funding.

Further Information

www.startup-factories.de

UNITE Berlin-Brandenburg website

UNITE on LinkedIn

Press Contact

Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Dortustraße 36
14467 Potsdam
Tel.: 0331 – 866 4560
presse@mwfk.brandenburg.de
mwfk.brandenburg.de

Image credit: ©BMWE/Dominik Butzmann