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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Today (9 April 2025), eight higher education institutions from Saxony and two from Thuringia founded the Startup Campus Alliance at Leipzig University. Through this association, they aim to provide lasting support for entrepreneurship and a start-up culture, and to establish Saxony and Thuringia as a leading deep tech start-up region in Germany.
Deep tech (short for “deep technology”) refers to technologies and companies that develop solutions based on significant scientific or technological innovation.
The founding members of the Startup Campus Alliance are:
- Leipzig University
- TU Dresden
- Chemnitz University of Technology
- TU Bergakademie Freiberg
- Dresden University of Applied Sciences
- Leipzig University of Applied Sciences
- Mittweida University of Applied Sciences
- HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena
- Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena.
The Startup Campus Alliance aims to strategically pool the strengths of universities in Saxony and Thuringia in the area of start-up support, thereby creating effective synergies. Through joint teaching formats, shared infrastructure and interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative support services will be developed for aspiring founders and start-up teams.
A key goal of the alliance is to raise the profile of successful higher education spin-offs and, in doing so, to strengthen the public perception of Saxony and Thuringia as start-up hubs – both nationally and internationally. “Beyond that, this cross-university cooperation will play a vital role in developing the regional start-up ecosystem. After all, most start-up ideas already come from higher education institutions,” says Professor Utz Dornberger of Leipzig University, who has been elected chair of the new association. He points out that in Saxony alone, nearly 100 new start-ups were founded in 2023 – more than 60 of which originated from university and research institution projects.
Utz Dornberger is a professor of development economics and specialises in small and medium-sized enterprises. He is also in charge of Leipzig University’s SMILE start-up initiative.
“This alliance will create new spaces for intensive, productive networking. It will promote exchange between start-up initiatives and make an important contribution to universities’ innovation strategies and to strengthening the region’s innovative capacity in the long term,” says Professor Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University, adding that Leipzig is pleased to be actively and enthusiastically involved in the newly established association: “We bring a great deal of experience and expertise to the table.” This is evident, among other things, in the Gründungsradar 2025 survey published by the Stifterverband, “where we scored particularly highly in the categories of start-up training and support.”
The non-profit association Startup Campus Alliance will form the organisational foundation for the collaboration. It will serve as a coordinating platform through which the diverse activities of higher education-based start-up support can be efficiently pooled and strategically aligned.
Its structure will also enable joint representation of interests within Business Opportunities Ost (boOst) Ecosystem gGmbH – a new company currently being established in parallel with the alliance. In addition to the Sparkassen savings banks in Saxony, SpinLab in Leipzig, and TUDAG, discussions are ongoing with other private investors. This strong partnership is intended to support the creation of innovative start-ups emerging from universities.
boOst will apply to the Startup Factories competition organised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which supports selected German start-up ecosystems in developing knowledge-based spin-offs. The aim is to develop a model for a thematically or regionally focused Startup Factory – operating as a private-sector organisation outside the framework of the higher education system.
Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger
Chair of the new Startup Campus Alliance
Professor of development economics and specialises in small and medium-sized enterprises
Phone: +49 341 97-39761
Mail: dornberger@uni-leipzig.de
Web: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/personenprofil/mitarbeiter/prof-dr-utz-dornberger
From left: Prof. Andreas Pinkwart (Director of TUD|excite, TU Dresden), Prof. Eva Inés Obergfell (Re ...
Photo: Swen Reichhold
Leipzig University
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists
interdisciplinary
transregional, national
Cooperation agreements, Transfer of Science or Research
English
From left: Prof. Andreas Pinkwart (Director of TUD|excite, TU Dresden), Prof. Eva Inés Obergfell (Re ...
Photo: Swen Reichhold
Leipzig University
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