Five days full of ideas: From July 13 to 17, 2026, the city of Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg area will become a hotspot for start-ups and building the future. The Start-up Week Bonn/Rhein-Sieg will showcase the region’s innovative strength and the University of Bonn with its Transfer Center enaCom is part of it! Together with other partners, such as the City of Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg District, the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Techniker Krankenkasse, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Sparkasse KölnBonn, Stadtwerke Bonn, Volksbank Köln Bonn, Fraunhofer FIT, and Taktsoft Energy, DIGITALHUB.DE raises awareness, connects, and supports aspiring entrepreneurs, start-ups, investors, and individuals who have not yet had any exposure to the topic of entrepreneurship through various events. 

The Cluster of Excellence “Matter and Light for Quantum Computing” (ML4Q) hosted the ML4Q Career & Technology Day 2026 in February. In collaboration with partners from academia and technology transfer, including the Transfer Center enaCom, the event brought together students, early-career researchers, alumni, and representatives from the quantum industry. ML4Q is a joint research consortium of the Universities of Bonn, Cologne, and Aachen, as well as Forschungszentrum Jülich.

This year’s Start-up Spring School was a sell-out: around 30 students took the opportunity to develop their ideas into initial business models in interdisciplinary teams. Over the course of an intensive week, creative and practical concepts emerged, which the participants presented in their final pitches at the end of the week. The Start-up School is offered regularly by the Transfer Center at the University of Bonn and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.

The “SxDiagnostics” project from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) prevailed against over 100 competing teams in the start2grow competition and placed in the (shared) 4th to 10th spots. Start2grow is organized nationwide by the Dortmund Economic Development Agency and celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

The prototyping grants from the University of Bonn's Transfer Center enaCom promote scientific ideas that are to be prepared for practical application. In 2025, a total of eight projects were funded that are developing new solutions to practical challenges. The topics range from AI-supported medical diagnostics and data analysis to biomedical testing systems and therapeutic approaches to digital solutions for improving life cycle assessments.

Second and third place in the BioRiver Boost! 2025 start-up competition went to the two start-up teams OncoDegrade and ColdEx from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB). First place went to the company JWP GmbH from Jülich. A total of eight finalists pitched their projects to a jury of experts at the award ceremony in Cologne in December. The competition is organized by BioRiver e.V. and annually honors innovative start-up projects in the biotechnology and life sciences industry.

The next Start-up Spring School will take place from March 9 to 13, 2026, organized by the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn and the Start-up Manufaktur at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS). In just five days, participants will work on their own ideas and develop initial business concepts. It is not necessary to have your own start-up idea prior to participating. Interested parties can register until February 25, 2026.

At the first Bonn Start-up Career Forum, around twenty start-ups from the University of Bonn and the surrounding region met with over a hundred interested talents. Participants exchanged ideas about possible career or co-founding opportunities, gave tips, and made new contacts. The forum is a joint event organized by the University of Bonn, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, DIGITALHUB.DE, and Witten/Herdecke University.