IT Inkubator at University of Saarland will open its program to researchers across Germany, who will however have to join the existing facilities in Saarbrücken.
University of Saarland has announced it will open its IT Inkubator to academic researchers across the country rather than maintain its existing sole focus on the Saarland Informatics Campus.
Faculty and students will be able to join a startup program aimed at helping them develop technologies to the point where they can be licensed by an existing company or spun out.
If selected, however, team members will be required to use the incubator’s existing facilities in Saarbrücken, rather than being able to tap into the program remotely.
The program will be open to existing groups and to single researchers who are looking for a founding management team – in the latter case, they will be able to access the incubator’s existing network to identify potential co-founders.
The three-month program will support founders in developing a business plan, identifying a client base and creating a prototype of their product or service. Finally, the incubator will coach teams to pitch their business and connect them to potential backers.
Teams will take part in a total of up to 12 workshops that are offered in collaboration with the Saarland Accelerator, operated by Kontaktstelle für Wissens- und Technologietransfer, the university’s tech transfer office.
Each cohort will be supported through a €65,000 ($73,000) grant supplied by the office of Saarland’s minister president.
Saarland was identified as the country’s second most prolific large university for company generation in a report published by the Association of Sponsors for the Promotion of German Science in December 2018. It supported the formation of 21 new businesses in 2018.
Technical University of Munich came in first place, while Munich University of Applied Sciences took third place.
