Thus among the Berlin universities, there are jointly developed programs, competitions, and scholarships that make students and researchers aware of a start-up project and qualify them for it. In this manner, the universities support founders in developing a business plan or in further developing a prototype or a process similar to prototypes.

Each of the universities has a service unit to facilitate the transfer of ideas from the research sector to the market. At Freie Universität it is Profund Innovation, at Technische Universität Berlin it is the Centre for Entrepreneurship, at Humboldt-Universität it is Humboldt-Innovation GmbH, and at Charité it is the Technology Transfer Office.

With the Berlin Startup Scholarship, Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin support founders who want to implement innovative technology-based business ideas. The program is financed with funds from the Berlin Senate Administration for Economics, Technology, and Research as well as the European Social Fund.

With the EXIST Founder Scholarship from the German Federal Government, innovative technology- or science-based start-up projects are funded for a year with up to 143,000 euros which cover the cost of living, cost of materials, and coaching. In Berlin Humboldt Universität, Technische Universität, and Freie Universität are part of the scholarship program.

In addition, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Freie Universität are partners in the project Entrepreneurial Network University, a strategy concept to establish a university-wide start-up culture. For this, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology awarded the title “EXIST Entrepreneur University” to the concept of Charité and Freie Universität. Technishe Universität Berlin also received this title for its start-up support in the Centre für Entrepreneurship. Connected to this award is funding that, among other things, supports universities in developing the potential for technology-oriented and knowledge-based start-ups.