October 12th 2026
From Lab to Venture. Startup Discovery Worskhop at Helmholtz Institute Ulm
Germany is strong in research quality and patents. However, there is still considerable room for improvement when it comes to transferring findings, technologies and know-how from science into business, society and politics. More spin-offs from universities and successful knowledge transfer will strengthen our economy and our innovative capacity in the long term. But how can this be achieved?
Alongside their core tasks of teaching and research, German universities regard transfer as a third key mission. This also includes enabling researchers in fields far removed from business, such as the natural sciences and engineering, to act entrepreneurially, for instance through cross-disciplinary programs that appeal to all faculties.
Our partner universities, KIT and Ulm University, already offer excellent central start-up support. At the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), we also take a direct approach at the source. To raise awareness of entrepreneurial thinking and to impart valuable know-how for future entrepreneurs, we held a Startup Discovery Workshop on October 9, 2026. It was led by Vivek Muralidharan, Studio Head of the venture studio 33 Blueprints Collective. Researchers from HIU and its partner institutions (Ulm University, KIT, DLR and ZSW) had the opportunity to spend a morning engaging intensively with business models, the fundamental principles of founding a company, founder archetypes and intellectual property. In interdisciplinary teams, they tested their own ideas and developed them further.
In this way, HIU considers market relevance alongside its basic research. From the very start, HIU researchers are encouraged to voice, test and pursue innovative ideas.
