The Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and the European Social Fund are funding the startup services alliance of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin with more than 1 million euros in the framework of the Berliner Startup Stipendium. The money will be used to support startups in the medical technology and healthcare industries at the startup centers.

From October 2021 to June 2023, a new funding program will provide targeted funding for innovative startup projects in the healthcare sector. The EU-React funding program was created specifically to support crisis management related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its societal impact, as well as to prepare for a green, digital, and stable economic recovery.

This was announced today during the anniversary event "Science & Startups – 5 Jahre Berliner Startup Stipendium" (5 Years Berlin Startup Scholarship).

Senator for Economics Ramona Pop: "With the Berliner Startup Stipendium, the state of Berlin has a successful funding program for turning the innovative ideas of those willing to start up a company into products. With the new funds from the EU-React funding program, research scholarship holders can give healthcare an additional innovation boost with their digital solutions. The Covid-19 crisis shows us how important new and sustainable ways of doing things are, even in the healthcare industry."

Since 2016, the universities have already been able to support more than 120 innovative startup projects with the help of the Berliner Startup Stipendium, thus making a significant contribution to the expansion of Berlin's startup ecosystem. This contribution can now be further expanded in the areas of medical technology and the healthcare industry with targeted qualification and networking formats.

Teams with innovative startup concepts from this area are to further develop an already existing prototype or a prototype-like process and prepare the planned market launch. The partner institutions of the Berlin University Alliance offer the founders – under the auspices of Science & Startups – not only a scholarship of 2,000 euros per month per team member, but also the necessary infrastructure (office and workshop space, equipment, laboratories), technical and business know-how, as well as accompanying coaching and qualification measures to realize the startup project.

"The top-level research conducted by Berlin's universities is at the core of Berlin's innovation system. Science & Startups is tapping into this potential across the entire spectrum of Berlin's research hub and is funding it into practical application with the help of the Berliner Startup Stipendium. The EU-React program enables us to fund this innovation potential, especially in this important area of the healthcare industry, thus strengthening the Berlin hub of research at the same time," says Christina Lüdtke, head of the Science & Startups administrative office.

 

Science & Startups

Science & Startups is the alliance of startup centers of the partner institutions of the Berlin University Alliance Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Science & Startups supports research-based startups and promotes the creative innovation of science. By pooling the resources of the three major Berlin universities and Charité, the alliance is creating a unique, internationally visible university startup ecosystem with extensive services, 1,700 potential academic mentors from the member institutions, and almost 130,000 potential co-founders.

The Berlin University Alliance

The Berlin University Alliance is a consortium consisting of three major Berlin universities – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin – and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, established to shape research and education in Berlin. The four partners joined forces to further develop Berlin as a research hub with international drawing power. Together the partners explore major societal challenges, increase public outreach, promote the training of junior researchers, address issues of quality and standards in research, and share resources in the areas of research infrastructure, teaching, diversity, equal opportunities, and internationalization. The Berlin University Alliance is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state of Berlin under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.

Joint press release from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin along with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Press contact
Hans-Christoph Keller, acting press spokesperson for the Berlin University Alliance and press spokesperson for Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Email: medien@berlin-university-alliance.de