Founder Initiative Ruhr
The Ruhr region offers the best conditions for becoming a successful and highly visible region for entrepreneurship, start-up promotion 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.
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. It 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 - to strengthen and further raise the profile of the Ruhr region as an ecosystem for entrepreneurship research, education and transfer to knowledge-oriented start-ups.
- Establishment and expansion of a cross-university network - to bring researchers, start-ups, companies and investors together on specific topics.
- Opening up events on entrepreneurship and start-ups in the UA Ruhr teaching and learning space - to promote synergies and exchange between lecturers and students.
- Increasing the number of innovative start-ups in the academic environment through joint formats - to attract financially strong investors as a vibrant start-up region.
- Enabling large venture capital rounds - to attract high-growth, high-tech start-ups (e.g. in the chemical or technological sector) to the region.
- Promoting cooperation between start-ups and industry - to keep young companies and SMEs in the region and strengthen competitiveness.
The vision of the Founder Initiative Ruhr is to be a strong partner for further cooperation with relevant players in technology and knowledge transfer and the start-up ecosystem in the Ruhr region. To make the Ruhr metropolitan region a visible hotspot for technology-based start-ups and technology transfer.
Contact at the three universities
Ronald Kriedel
Managing Director CET Dortmund
Phone: +49-231-755-3787
E-Mail: ronald.kriedel@tu-dortmund.de
Marc Seelbach
Managing Director of WORLDFACTORY
Phone.: +49-234-32-22477
E-Mail: marc.seelbach@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
