Universities in Central Hesse: entrepreneurial spirit at a record high!

Universities in Central Hesse: entrepreneurial spirit at a record high!

The Philipps University of Marburg, the Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the Technical University of Central Hesse have achieved significant improvements in the “Large Universities” category in the current 2025 start-up radar. The start-up radar is a comprehensive survey of German universities on start-up support, which focuses on the number of start-ups and their systematic integration into research and teaching. This reports University of Marburg.

In 2023, 2,927 supervised start-ups were registered at universities across Germany. This represents an increase compared to 2021 and shows the increasing importance of knowledge and technology transfer, as over a third of start-ups are in this area. A look at the statistics shows that 1,184 start-ups are based on this innovation approach, and 290 of the start-ups are even based on patents, according to the Founding radar.

Initiatives to promote start-ups

The start-up initiative StartMiUp plays a central role in supporting founders in Central Hesse. She organizes pitch events to promote innovative ideas. Patricia Kuhr, the managing director of StartMiUp, highlights the positive development of start-up support in the region. The founding of the StartMiUp Factory Sustainable Life in collaboration with regional business partners aims to further promote sustainable innovations.

A decentralized accelerator program is being launched to promote promising innovations in the field of sustainable life. The universities are also planning to take part in the EXIST lighthouse competition “Startup Factories”. They would like to apply for funding of up to 5 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) in order to further strengthen their initiatives.

Sustainable innovation ecosystems

The “Innovation Funnel Central Hesse” project will promote networking between startups, regional companies and partners within the innovation ecosystem. The aim is to support founders from idea generation to market readiness and thus sustainably strengthen the start-up culture in the region.

These developments are part of a broader initiative by the Federal Ministry of Research that aims to translate scientific results into practical innovations. A central goal is to create networks from science, business and civil society in order to strengthen Germany as a location for innovation in international competition. Loud BMBF Technology transfer will continue to be promoted in order to develop solutions to social challenges.

Although Germany has a strong research landscape, it faces the challenge of effectively applying these findings. In this context, the start-up radar plays a crucial role in the further development of start-up support at universities in order to ensure long-term success. Particular attention is paid to building expertise and ongoing support from university management, such as Founding radar highlights.