“Startup Factories” is a competition for flagship projects launched by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in addition to its longstanding funding programme "EXIST – University-based startups". The funding is aimed at entrepreneurial startup incubators that are linked to higher education institutions. As a first step, universities and research institutes with high spin-off rates can participate in a design stage. The corresponding funding notice has been published in the Federal Gazette.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said: "Higher education and research establishments are some of the most important sources of new technologies, innovative products and services. Germany has a leading position in research. In order to also be a leading nation for innovative startups, we need to improve the transfer of knowledge and technologies into the economy. To make this possible, we want to promote the establishment of flagship startup projects that are visible at supra-regional and international level."

With the new funding line, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is implementing an important project of the Federal Government’s Startup Strategy which is to facilitate spin-offs from higher education. A special feature of the future Startup factories will be the close cooperation between the higher education sector and private financing partners: the Startup Factories will be financed through is a public-private partnership. It has to be at least 50% funded by private sources and develop sustainably viable business models. The combination of higher education institutions, investors and established companies should help to scale-up the German ecosystem for innovative startups.

Up to 15 projects are to be selected by an independent jury by early June. They will use funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action to develop their detailed project design and apply for an implementation stage planned for 2025.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has used the “EXIST – University-based startups” funding programme for many years to increase the number of spin-offs from higher education and improve the entrepreneurial environment at higher education institutions and non-university research centres. The new Startup Factories funding line will give a new high-performance boost to the innovative startup community.