Central Hesse universities: start-up radar shows an upward trend!

Central Hesse universities: start-up radar shows an upward trend!

Start-up funding in central Hesse universities is experiencing an upswing, as the current edition of Start-up radars 2025 shows. All three universities in Central Hesse – the Justus Liebig University of Gießen, the Philipps University of Marburg and the Technical University of Central Hesse – have improved in the “Large Universities” category. This positive development is a sign of the continuous development of start-up support in the region.

The Start-up Radar 2025 is a comprehensive survey that has been carried out since 2012 Donors' Association is carried out in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. The focus is on the number of new companies founded and their systemic integration into research and teaching. For example, in 2023, a record-breaking number of 2,927 supervised start-ups were registered at universities across Germany.

Results and developments

A significant aspect of this annual survey is the increase in start-ups with knowledge and technology transfer, which amounted to 1,184 in 2023, representing more than a third of the total. Of these, 290 start-ups are based on patents. This shows a clear trend: the number of patent-based start-ups has more than doubled since 2012.

As part of the start-up support in Central Hesse, the founding of theStartMiUp Factory Sustainable Lifeis being planned, which will be realized in collaboration with regional economic partners. This initiative aims to promote sustainable innovations and cross-technology innovations and will be an important part of the EXIST lighthouse competition “Startup Factories”, which is funded with up to ten million euros by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.

Sustainable structures and future prospects

The implementation of such initiatives is part of a comprehensive plan to consolidate start-up support. The aim is to convert temporary funding structures into sustainable, permanent structures in order to ensure the long-term success of start-up support at universities. The development of expertise through experienced staff and continuous support from university management play a crucial role here.

In addition, the expansion of theStartMiUp Funnelsplanned to accompany founders from the idea to market readiness. The ERDF project “Innovation Funnel Central Hesse” is intended to open the process for companies and promote their networking. This comprehensive offer in the area of ​​start-up support increases the attractiveness of the universities for students and creates an attractive environment for entrepreneurially minded scientists.

The successful start-up activity in the region is a clear indicator of the close links between universities and the regional economy. These developments can be seen as a key to unlocking unused innovation potential at universities. The start-up radar not only analyzes start-up activities, but also their outputs and the institutional anchoring of the topic at universities.