Unipreneurs is an initiative to strengthen spin-offs from German universities. It was launched by Matthias Hilpert and Martin Schilling, who were able to win partner organizations such as the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the Startup-Verband, Bitkom, and AddedVal.io.
The initiative honors professors who play a key role in promoting business start-ups in the higher education environment. From around 700 nominations, a board of trustees selected 20 outstanding professors who were awarded the Unipreneurs Award in early September at the Allianz Forum in Berlin. Among the guests of honor were Federal Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, as well as Anna Christmann, Federal Ministry for Economy and Climate Action’s commissioner for digital economy and startups.
“Driving forces for Germany’s innovative power and future viability”
Bettina Stark-Watzinger on the importance of the honored professors:
“We want to strengthen entrepreneurial activity at our universities. Professors play a central role in this. They significantly contribute to a culture of start-ups at universities and are important drivers for Germany’s innovative power and future viability.”
Anna Christmann added:
“The honored professors embody the outstanding connection between academic excellence and entrepreneurial spirit. Their contributions to transferring innovations into the economy are of immeasurable value to Germany as an innovation hub and deserve the highest recognition.”
Establishing an entrepreneurship center in Munich
Among the honored professors is UnternehmerTUM CEO and Vice President Entrepreneurship of TU München, Helmut Schönenberger. Schönenberger studied aeronautics and astronautics in Stuttgart and completed a postgraduate business studies program at the Technical University of Munich. In his thesis, he already compared Stanford University with TUM and recommended establishing an entrepreneurship center in Munich. Together with Susanne Klatten, he founded UnternehmerTUM in 2002. The center supports entrepreneurs with a variety of different programs and services. UnternehmerTUM’s staff accompany founders from market entry through to IPO. Through its investment arm UVC Partners, the entrepreneurship center also provides venture capital.
In the Unipreneurs citation, Helmut Schönenberger’s commitment is described as follows:
“Helmut Schönenberger’s passion is to lead promising startups to success and inspire people for innovation and entrepreneurship. He pursues the goal of supporting scalable high-tech startups, founders, and scientists from the initial idea to a successful product.”
