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The lysosome is a part of human cells and has been linked to a variety of diseases, including cancer. Proteins derived from lysosomes have a high potential to serve as biomarkers, which allow to detect diseases in the human body. A research team led by Dr. Dominic Winter (Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and University Hospital Bonn) has developed an innovative assay to analyze these lysosomal proteins and, therefore, to detect potential new biomarkers. With this assay, diseases could be tracked down more efficiently in the future. The project is now being funded with a prototyping grant to further develop the method to commercialization. The grants with a funding amount of up to €50,000 are regularly awarded by the Transfer Center enaCom. Applications for prototype development in 2024 can currently be submitted until 31.05.2024.

Which signaling pathways are disrupted by the development of tumors and how can they be addressed effectively? Professor Günter Mayer from the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn is investigating these questions. The researcher has been awarded a coveted Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for this project. The European Union is providing some €2.5 million in funding over the next five years.

Two weeks full of new experiences, encounters, enriching workshops, introspection and insights - this is what the first group of FEMTEC scholarship holders from the University of Bonn experienced at this year's FEMTEC Winter School. In March, the five students traveled to Berlin for a week of workshops and then visited various companies throughout Germany. The Winter School marks the start of the one-and-a-half-year career-building programme, in which the female students from Bonn are prepared for future leadership roles in business or science. The FEMTEC programme starts twice a year and opens the next call of applications from 15.4.-5.5.2024. All female STEM Master's students are invited to apply!

The new online training course "Research Impact: Creating Meaning and Value" teaches the basics of the impact of research in business, politics and society. What counts as impact, how can it be embedded and considered in every step of the research process and ultimately implemented effectively? The Bonn Graduate Center, the Funding Advisory Service and the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn co-developed this program as part of an international group of experts around the leading provider of online training EPIGEUM. This makes the University of Bonn one of the first universities in the German-speaking world to offer this course.

For one day, almost 20 teams with a total of around 70 participants worked with great concentration at the first joint hackathon by the University of Bonn and Deutsche Telekom. At #Hack4BestCX, organized by the Transfer Center enaCom, the LAMARR Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and Deutsche Telekom, on 1 March 2024, students and young scientists developed solutions for better prediction models for customer satisfaction at Deutsche Telekom. They gained practical insights into the working methods of the major DAX-listed company and made important contacts for their future careers.

The University of Bonn is organizing a hackathon for students and young scientists together with Deutsche Telekom. The aim is for participants to use machine learning to help improve Deutsche Telekom's forecasting models. Together with the university's Transfer Center enaCom and the LAMARR Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, which the University of Bonn runs jointly with TU Dortmund University and others, the company is looking for innovative and unconventional solutions to improve the customer experience (CX) of Deutsche Telekom customers at #Hack4BestCX on March 1, 2024.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Blanke from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology at the University of Bonn has been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant (PoC) by the European Research Council (ERC). This program provides financial support of 150,000 euros over a maximum period of 18 months to help researchers transfer their ideas from previous ERC projects involving outstanding basic research to commercial applications. These grants thus specifically promote the transfer of knowledge and scientific spin-offs or “sciencepreneurship.”

The economist Professor Christian Bayer from the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics at the University of Bonn has been awarded a Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This program hands researchers €150,000 in funding for up to 18 months to help them commercialize their ideas from previous ERC projects through excellent basic research.

Researchers at the University of Bonn can receive up to € 50,000 to further develop science-based and innovative start-up ideas. For this purpose, the Transfer Center enaCom invites applications for prototyping grants to prepare start-up projects from research for commercialization. The application deadline for the current call is February 25, 2024.

Dermatologist Prof. Jörg Wenzel of Bonn University Hospital and University of Bonn has collaborated with Incyte, a U.S.-based global biopharmaceutical company, to develop a strategy for treating patients with severe pruritus (prurigo nodularis) with ruxolitinib cream. The University of Bonn and Incyte have now entered into an agreement whereby Incyte has acquired the rights to a related joint patent application from Bonn.

Innovations in AI-assisted social sciences, sustainable agriculture and medicine are being funded in the third round of prototyping grants by the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn. Whether an AI solution for better understanding of scientific communities, a robot that treats weeds differently depending on the species, or a preventive nasal spray - scientists from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn are developing innovative prototypes for practical challenges of our time. With the prototyping grants, their research findings are prepared for a planned commercialization. The grants with a funding amount of up to €50,000 are regularly awarded by the Transfer Center.

16 participants have started the first EXIST Women program at the University of Bonn. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), the Transfer Center enaCom is supporting the women from four faculties (Mathematics, Philosophy, Medicine and Agriculture) with a one-year program of workshops, mentoring and networking on their way to setting up a business. Ten of the participants will receive a grant of up to a total of 9,000 euros for three months as well as a lump sum of 2,000 euros for material costs to advance their start-up idea. The University of Bonn is one of the first universities in Germany to launch the EXIST Women program.

How can reducing greenhouse gas emissions, more efficient energy use and animal welfare be balanced even more successfully in livestock farming in the future? This was the question tackled by a team of authors led by Professor Wolfgang Büscher and Inga Tiemann from the Animal Husbandry Technology Department, which is part of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Bonn. Their contributions have now been published alongside those of many other researchers in the VDI Roadmap entitled “Agriculture Technology 2030.” 

The University of Bonn joins the cooperation network of the Femtec Network and will enrich the long-standing network with female MINT talents. This makes the University of Bonn the tenth partner university in this Germany-wide network of leading universities as well as internationally active partner companies. Femtec's study-accompanying program prepares female students with a passion for technology for their career entry and offers them a strong network. Female students of the University of Bonn from MINT courses at the beginning of their master's studies can apply for the study-accompanying program at Femtec until November 5.

How can the diverse and innovative knowledge from the University of Bonn be turned into creative and innovative ideas? The ideas competition of the Transfer Center enaCom offers a great opportunity to turn such ideas into reality, plus the chance to win prizes of up to 1,000 euros. The deadline for submitting idea sketches is November 5^th, 2023.

Black holes still pose many questions and inspire creativity in science, philosophy and literature. But interest is not only great among experts: More than 100 audience members came to the public discussion "Dialogue on Deck: Black Holes and the Limits of Space and Time," where experts from various disciplines explored the nature of space and time and the limits of our knowledge. The event took place on the exhibition ship MS Wissenschaft as part of the Science Year 2023 "Our Universe" and was organized by a transdisciplinary team from the University of Bonn.

Scientifically sound knowledge is of increasing importance in answering the big questions of our time. But how does the transfer of knowledge between science and politics work? At the Postdoc Day of the University of Bonn with the title "Creating Impact! Contributions, Challenges and Limits of Science in Policy Advice" central questions around the interaction of science and policy were discussed, for which there are many prominent examples at the University of Bonn. It took place on June 21 at the Universitätsclub Bonn.

Is there a healthy alternative to sugar? How can I measure changes to my mental acuity? And how can cancer prevention be made more reliable? These questions are at the heart of three innovative validation projects— “Sweeternative,” “Trackognize,” and “HPV & Cervix all-in-one Test”— that are receiving funding from the prototyping grant’s application round #2 of the Transfer Center enaCom. The teams from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) are each receiving a prototyping grant to develop their innovative research findings to market readiness. Calls for the grants with up to 50,000 euros in funding are regularly posted by the Transfer Center.

Two researchers from the University of Bonn have been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of a program designed to help researchers translate their ideas from previous ERC projects into commercial applications. Biologist Prof. Dr. Bernardo S. Franklin from the University Hospital Bonn and physicist Prof. Dr. Simon Stellmer will thus each receive €150,000 over a period of around one year.

3D printing of blood vessels, fine diagnostic procedures for asthma, improved measurement of blood flow or the digital future of sports medicine - the Transfer Center enaCom is funding these innovative validation projects with prototyping grants this year. The four teams of scientists from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn are using the grants to develop and validate their innovative research results for planned commercialization. The grants, which were awarded for the first time this year, will again be announced by the Transfer Center for 2023. Applications for funding of up to €50,000 can be submitted until October 15, 2022.

Code Intelligence, which grew out of a startup at the University of Bonn, is receiving $12 million in funding led by Tola Capital. Code Intelligence helps developers by providing a platform to find and fix security vulnerabilities before the product is finished. 

Up to € 50,000 funds are available for young scientists at the University of Bonn for product validations from their research. For the first time the Transfer Center enaCom is offering prototyping grants which support innovative research results to be further developed for commercialisation. Application deadline is May 19, 2022 for the current year. Applications for 2023 can be submitted starting August 15, 2022 until October 15, 2022.

The British company APIS Assay Technologies Ltd has acquired the University of Bonn's spin-off project Clickmer Systems, which was further developed at the Life Science Inkubator (LSI), for a single-digit million euro sum. The startup is developing clickmers as a synthetic alternative to antibodies that can be utilized in research and medical diagnostics. Clickmers can be used, for example, to detect viral infections, determine vaccination status or detect rejection reactions after organ transplants. The company now wants to bring the innovative products to market quickly so that users can benefit from them in the near future.

How can a customized chemotherapy be found for cancer, for example? Machine learning methods can help with this and also improve patient treatment for other diseases. The start-up project aimed analytics at the University of Bonn has developed a modular analysis system that precisely groups patients on the basis of medical Big Data. The team of Dr. Kevin Baßler, Dr. Patrick Günther and Karsten Waltemathe has now received a coveted EXIST start-up grant of 130,000 euros from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for one year.

Large-scale farming without herbicides, yet without small-scale manual labor. The University of Bonn spin-off Escarda Technologies is working on environmentally friendly weed control in the recently launched joint project "Photonic weed control in sugar beet cultivation - laser-based weed management" (LMU), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).