Green light for Startup Factory UNITE: Turbo for science-based spin-offs

Success for Berlin and Brandenburg: the application for the Startup Factory UNITE has been successful in a nationwide competition. The central innovation and start-up centre in the capital region will receive federal funding of ten million euros as part of the EXIST lighthouse competition "Startup Factories". This was announced today by Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche. Together with funds previously raised from private donors, UNITE will thus have a total of around 21 million euros at its disposal over the next five years. Science Minister Dr Manja Schüle, Economics Minister Daniel Keller and representatives of Brandenburg's universities and research institutions welcome the success of the capital region.

Brandenburg's Science Minister Dr Manja Schüle: "This is a great success for the region and will be a boost 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 questions of our time. With the joint Startup Factory UNITE, business and science are now pooling their expertise across national borders - a strong signal in challenging times. I am looking forward to working together and promise that we will do everything we can to make UNITE a success. The work starts now."

Brandenburg's Minister of Economic Affairs Daniel Keller: "Raising Brandenburg's profile as a location for knowledge-based start-ups and leveraging the potential of these innovative and growth-oriented start-ups for Brandenburg and its economic development - that is one of the goals of our Brandenburg start-up offensive. UNITE will play a central role in this endeavour. UNITE will provide important impetus for even stronger and sustainably successful start-up activity in Brandenburg and Berlin, particularly through the interaction of science and private sector involvement. The six start-up centres that are currently being established in the state will also play a part in this, in order to promote the national and international competitiveness and growth of promising start-ups. These start-up centres will also play an important role in the UNITE ecosystem. In particular, we are looking at future fields such as energy, digitalisation, mobility and the circular economy."

Prof. Dr Matthias Barth, President of Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) and board chairperson of the Brandenburg State Conference of University Presidents: "The selection of UNITE as a nationally funded Startup Factory is a strong signal for the Brandenburg university landscape. It can now work even more closely with partners from Berlin on scientific spin-offs across state borders. This will give innovative start-up ideas from Brandenburg significantly greater visibility and support. For us at HNEE, this is a great 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 are making an active contribution to shaping the economy and society for the future. We will make targeted use of our scientific expertise, our strong network and our many years of experience in the field of sustainable start-ups to fund innovative business models with real added value for society."

Prof. Dr Gesine Grande, President of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and deputy chairperson of the Brandenburg State Conference of University Presidents: "The federal funding for our Startup Factory UNITE is an important success on the way to a capital region that focuses on innovation and a sustainable start-up landscape. By working closely with our universities, non-university research partners, business and politics across state borders, we will succeed in meeting the challenges of our time with future-proof and sustainable solutions. I am very pleased that we were able to prevail with our concept in the nationwide excellence competition."

Prof. Dr Susanne Buiter, Scientific Director of the GFZ Helmholtz 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. Thanks to this initiative, cooperation in the area of start-up consulting and support has already intensified significantly - and this will now continue in the long term with the selection of our Startup Factory. We expect UNITE to give an enormous boost to the start-up dynamic in the region. The GFZ is already a Helmholtz Centre with a very strong start-up scene. The new regional programmes in areas such as entrepreneurship, training, infrastructure, pilot customers and financing will complement our own start-up support activities very well. This is why the GFZ, as the largest non-university research institution in the state of Brandenburg, is a founding member of UNITE Sciences e.V. and why I am personally involved in the organisation."

The states of Berlin and Brandenburg want to develop the capital region into a leading international innovation and start-up centre with the joint Startup Factory UNITE project. UNITE is a consortium of more than 40 partners from the fields of science, business, politics and society in Berlin and Brandenburg. The project is being realised by a consortium that currently includes around 20 universities and scientific institutions from Berlin and Brandenburg. Numerous companies have also already signalled their support. From Brandenburg, for example, representatives from BTU, HNEE and GFZ are members of the board of UNITE Sciences e.V.

The federal government wants to significantly increase the number and quality of knowledge-based spin-offs with the Startup Factories lighthouse competition. To this end, supra-regional and internationally visible startup factories are to be established as lighthouses that, among other things

• have a strong connection to start-up-strong universities and non-university research institutions with high innovation and talent potential,
• contribute to strengthening universities and research institutions in the transfer sector by establishing public-private partnerships,
• are organised as entrepreneurs and establish sustainable, viable business models and
• establish a high number of high-growth start-ups.

In a two-stage process, 10 projects were selected from around 30 applications to receive multi-year funding to realise their projects.

Contact
Ministry of Science, Research and Culture
Stephan Breiding, Press Officer
T +49 (0) 331 866-4566
presse(at)mwfk.brandenburg.de