“I am absolutely delighted about the UNIPRENEURS award. This will bring greater attention to the topics of spin-offs and entrepreneurship at our university, as well as to our commitment to promoting them. The award is a great honor,” says Prof. Denise Fischer-Kreer, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Sustainable Futures” and the Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob” at the University of Bonn. She adds that transfer is another key task of a university, alongside research and teaching. “I look forward to further strengthening the entrepreneurial culture at our university in the coming years together with my great team and colleagues working in the field of transfer.”
Denise Fischer-Kreer holds the professorship for Entrepreneurial Behaviour at the University of Bonn and is a member of the transdisciplinary research area “Sustainable Futures”. After studying industrial engineering, earning her doctorate at RWTH Aachen University, and working for two years in the LANXESS Strategy department, she returned to the university with great enthusiasm to develop innovative and practical teaching formats. In her teaching, she is working to establish entrepreneurship education across faculties, thereby strengthening the entrepreneurial culture at the University of Bonn. Her key goal is to empower students to believe in themselves and their abilities, and to view entrepreneurial thinking as a key future skill – whether they pursue self-employment or drive change within organizations. As part of these efforts, she experiments with interdisciplinary teaching formats, such as using improvisational theatre in the lecture hall.
In 2024, DEUTZ AG in Cologne honored her with the Nicolaus August Otto Award for her dedication to fostering an entrepreneurial spirit among business startups in the agriculture and food industries. In her research, she explores entrepreneurship in unique settings, ranging from a sustainable municipality in southern India to through the Vatican in Rome and the Archdiocese of Cologne, as well as entrepreneurial dynamics in the Global South.
Alongside teaching and research, she supports and develops the local start-up ecosystem and promotes the transfer of knowledge and practical expertise, as a board member of the Universitätsgesellschaft Bonn (UGB). She is also the founder of the UGB Transfer Award. Her practical work focuses, among other things, on developing gaming and children’s book formats to promote an entrepreneurial mindset. She also acts as a VIP+ mentor for Sweethoven Biotech, a project that has developed a healthy sugar alternative based on fundamental research.
UNIPRENEURS has set itself the task of fostering entrepreneurship at German universities. According to the organization, the professors honored are outstanding researchers at their respective universities and, alongside research and teaching, have made important contributions to the transfer of innovations into business. They represent the highest standards of research excellence in engineering, the economic sciences, the natural sciences, computer science, and medicine. Together, UNIPRENEURS have supported around 600 startups as mentors, advisory board members, or investors. 90 percent of the professors honored have founded companies themselves. Out of more than 800 founder nominations, 20 professors were presented with awards this year.
“With the UNIPRENEURS initiative, entrepreneurial activity at German universities is being fostered by raising the profile of professors who play a key role,” says Federal Minister of Research, Technology, and Space, Dorothee Bär. “The award recipients make a significant contribution to creating a culture of entrepreneurship at universities and are thus also important drivers of Germany’s capacity for innovation and long-term competitiveness.”
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Katharina Reiche, also honors the professors’ achievements: “UNIPRENEURS represents the strong link between academic excellence and entrepreneurial courage at our universities. The professors honored make an important contribution to Germany’s competitiveness as an innovation hub.”
More information:
Sitfterverband: https://www.stifterverband.org/unipreneurs
Interview with Prof. Denise Fischer-Kreer: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/press-and-communications/publications/forsch/forsch-2025-01/forsch-news-2025-01/pioniere-werden-nicht-geboren-sondern-gemacht?set_language=en
New professorship [in German]: https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/neues/neue-professur-fuer-entrepreneurial-behaviour