The start-up project Sweethoven Biotech is developing a sweet-tasting fiber that can be consumed instead of sugar. It is a genuine alternative, as fiber is much lower in calories and healthier than sugar or conventional sweeteners. The team led by Dr. Marcel Hövels and Dr. André Neff from the Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology (IFMB) impressed the judges at the innovation sprints held by DATI – the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation of the BMBF – in the summer and will receive funding of just under €180,000. In addition, the team won numerous awards and prizes in the fall, including third place in the BioRiver Boost! and first place in the Bio-Gründerwettbewerb (Bio-Startup Competition) of the Bio-Security Competence Center. These placements secured the team membership in BioRiver e.V. and prize money totaling €4,000.

Current market trends, competitive analyses or insights into growth opportunities - if you want to find out about markets now, you can use the IBISWorld database This platform offers a wide range of market analyses and industry reports from over 700 industries worldwide. The Transfer Centre enaCom is providing all students, researchers and employees of the University of Bonn with free access to the IBISWorld market database from October to December 2024.

Do you have an innovative idea that ideally solves a problem of our society? Would you like to present this idea and develop it further? Then apply for the ideas competition of the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn! In addition to numerous offers of support, you have the chance to win 1000 euros for your idea. You can submit your idea sketch until 10 November 2024.

In the upcoming winter semester, the Transfer Center enaCom offers many exciting events and workshops covering topics such as innovation, start-ups, and entrepreneurship. Learn useful methods and tools for brainstorming ideas, innovation management, and designing business models. As a highlight, you are invited to submit your ideas to the ideas competition and win great prizes. Submit your idea sketch by November 10 for a chance to be invited to the grand finale on December 3.

“Femtec is a very enriching experience,” says Patricia (student MSc Mathematics), who has been going through the career-building programme since March and has just started the “Innovation Lab” project with Deutsche Telekom. The FEMTEC programme offers STEM students valuable networks in business and science and thus attractive career opportunities. Here they are prepared for their future careers and potential leadership roles. The FEMTEC programme starts twice a year and opens the next application round from October 14 to November 3, 2024. All female students in a STEM master's program are invited to apply!

Dr. Peter Boeker has gone from scientific research to founding a company and successfully launching it on the market with his start-up HyperChrom. He earned his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Bonn and, as a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Agriculture, established a working group for gas sensor technology and artificial odor measurement technology. In 2013, he invented and patented the fundamentals for the Flow-Field Thermal Gradient GC and developed it into a certified measurement system. Boeker then founded HyperChrom in 2017. Its gas chromatography devices separate mixtures of substances and determine the quantity of the individual components. HyperChrom has significantly accelerated and improved this “universal weapon” of chemical analysis. "With our invention, we have managed to reduce this process from half an hour to about one minute. This is a drastic reduction while maintaining a very high level of quality," explains Boeker. In an interview with enaCom, he talks about his various roles as a scientist and founder, the development of his start-up over the years, and the importance of the university for the company.

Innovations such as a chatbot that talks to patients while recording medical data or a new test procedure for genetic defects in infertile men are being funded by the Transfer Center enaCom in the 5th round of prototyping grants. Two teams of scientists from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) are developing innovative prototypes for practical challenges of our time. The findings from the research are prepared for planned commercialization with the prototyping grants. The grants with a funding amount of up to €50,000 are regularly announced by the Transfer Center. Applications for the next round can be submitted until 20.11.2024.

The university was once again a partner at Germany's largest start-up open-air event in Bonn with its Transfer Center enaCom. STARTUP OPEN AIR (SOA) offered a wealth of inspiration and plenty of space for networking with exciting discussions, keynote speeches, pitches, and workshops. Numerous start-ups, people interested in founding a company, investors, and companies from Bonn and the surrounding region took part in the event at the end of August, including several start-up teams from the University of Bonn, such as Datapods, Narraflix, and Electi Inventory. Identeco, an IT security start-up founded four years ago at the University of Bonn, pitched on the main stage.