Results of the Gründungsradar: HNEE has exemplary start-up support

In the latest evaluation by the Stifterverband for 2020, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) has been awarded the seal of approval of the best for its start-up support: As evaluated by the Stifterverband's Gründungsradar, it is one of 232 universities participating in the survey to be in the top 25 per cent of its size category. The Gründungsradar tracks the extent to which universities promote start-ups through start-up sensitisation, qualification and support as well as through the institutional anchoring of a sustainable start-up culture and networking.

A sustainable start-up culture at universities promotes the transfer of knowledge from universities to society and leads to innovation, employment and new skills among students. The Stifterverband's Gründungsradar has analysed the start-up culture at universities in Germany for the fifth time. The Stifterverband is a joint initiative of companies and foundations that has set itself the task of providing holistic advice, networking and support in the areas of education, science and innovation. The current evaluation of the Stifterverband for 2020 shows the start-up culture at universities continues to develop positively, with more and more universities implementing instruments and taking measures for good start-up support. For the first time, more than 2,150 start-ups were reported by the universities. In mid-2020, the University for Sustainable Development was one of 232 universities to take part in the Stifterverband's Gründungsradar survey. Measured by the indicators defined by the Gründungsradar, HNE Eberswalde is among the top 25 per cent of its size class and thus officially has exemplary start-up support. The team at the HNEE start-up centre led by Robert Schmidt is particularly pleased about this. "The results of the start-up radar show that we should never stop striving to become even better. This is the only way we can be really good and continue to be committed to a strong start-up culture at our university," says Kathleen Bubnow, Deputy Head of the Start-up Centre. The services offered by the start-up centre are aimed at students, alumni and academic staff from all departments at HNEE. As the first port of call for all questions relating to business start-ups and self-employment, the staff provide individual advice, information on funding opportunities and support for small and large start-ups from the initial idea through to realisation. Free workshops offer corresponding further training opportunities and teach important skills in conflict management, for example.

The Gründungsradar is organised in cooperation and with the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and with funding from the Marga and Kurt Möllgaard Foundation of the Stifterverband. The focus was on the question of how universities promote business start-ups through start-up sensitisation, qualification and support as well as through the institutional anchoring of a sustainable start-up culture and smart networking. The evaluation also took into account which start-up activities could be realised in the end.

HNEE's successful start-up activities include 18 annual awareness-raising events on the topics of start-ups and self-employment. Between 2018 and 2020, four EXIST start-up grants were approved. In addition, HNEE was awarded the Ideenschmiede prize as the most entrepreneurial university in the state of Brandenburg as part of the 2019 Berlin-Brandenburg Business Plan Competition (BPW). In June 2020, HNEE co-hosted a preliminary round of the NEXT ROUND BRANDENBURG, a pitch event for teams or individual founders who present themselves to investors, business angels and other representatives from the start-up scene - another round will take place on 9 June 2021 with the participation of HNEE.

The Gründungsradar's set of indicators was revised for the latest edition. Some new indicators and topics, such as the internationalisation of start-up support or aspects of diversity among start-up personalities, have been addressed since 2020. In particular, networking in start-up support is examined in more detail. Some successful network associations are portrayed as examples. The publication and further results can be found on the website of the Gründungsradar. In the data portal of the Stifterverband the figures from the Start-up Radar are also presented in numerous interactive graphics.