Deep Technology

University transfer becomes more specific - opportunity for funding

By Markus Lemmens

The commitment of German universities to knowledge and technology transfer is pointing in the right direction. The current Gründungsrader 2022 of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany) proves the rising numbers: With 12.8 per cent company start-ups per 10,000 students, universities and universities of applied sciences in this country set the bar even higher in the assessment year 2021 (10.5 per cent in 2019). A total of 2,779 companies were founded (2021), compared to 2,176 in the survey year 2020. Leuphana University of Lüneburg ranks 13th nationwide in the category of medium-sized universities.

The start-up cultures and entrepreneurial thinking at universities have been developing for years. That is good. Two other results of the start-up radar are interesting for the new companies emerging from teaching and research. Start-ups that are based on knowledge and technology transfer and apply for legal protection - thus taking research findings as the starting point and basis for their business models - are increasingly growing up. The start-up radar states that "1,108 of the start-ups indicated for 2021 were based on science and/or technology transfer (2019: 984) and 254 of the start-ups are based on property rights such as patents (2019: 186)."

From the point of view of Leuphana's Faculty of Management and Technology, it remains important to continue to teach entrepreneurial thinking and action comprehensively and also to actively contribute to the founding of companies. In the strict sense, technology-based as well as socially addressed start-ups are equally respected and important from a faculty perspective.

Markus Lemmens

In the future, the Stifterverband will further refine the evaluations. The aim will be a differentiation that allows better conclusions to be drawn about original science-related start-ups. This could be used to design new financial support that could extend beyond the established German EXIST programme. From the point of view of Leuphana's Faculty of Management and Technology, it remains important to continue to teach entrepreneurial thinking and action comprehensively and also to actively contribute to the founding of companies. In the strict sense, technology-based as well as socially addressed start-ups are equally respected and important from a faculty perspective. However, since the financing needs and also the duration of a scientific-technical further development in tech companies differ from those with a social-civil society orientation, differentiated measurement figures from the Stifterverband can make the transfer process from a university even more transparent. In the end, this will help both start-up categories.

This consideration fits into the ongoing science and higher education policy debate. With the SPRIND - Agency for Leap Innovations in Leipzig - financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a partner in the system is very active in promoting start-ups from science and research in a sustainable way. SPRIND director Rafael Laguna de la Vera therefore advocates a longer financial and temporal breath when it comes to deep technology in Germany and companies based on it. He has stated this publicly several times.

When it comes to technologies and their further development that are elevated from research findings to the core of a business model, this is commonly referred to as deep technology. Start-up ideas in these fields, such as materials research and sustainable production, as in Leuphana's engineering sciences, usually require a lot of money and longer periods of time before they are successful on the market. It can take up to 15 years. Since SPRIND has now approved a good 90 million euros for fusion research in Munich's Marvel Fusion and Darmstadt's Focused Energy over a longer period in March 2023, optimism is the order of the day. After all, their market readiness is still a good 10 years in the future.

Let's wait for the next start-up radar and bring our faculty further forward with sustainable tech start-ups.