North Rhine-Westphalia wants to promote university spin-offs

The state has launched the next round of its "Start-up Transfer.NRW" funding competition. It is aimed specifically at founders and founding teams from universities in NRW.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has announced a new round of the "Start-up Transfer.NRW" funding competition. Here, female founders and founding teams from North Rhine-Westphalian universities and research institutions can receive financial support for their start-ups. The state and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will provide a total of 40 million euros until 2027.

Each start-up will be supported with up to 270,000 euros for a maximum period of two years. Funding is also available for the further development of research results into products and services, the preparation of a business start-up and project-accompanying advice from a coach with industry experience. The universities submit the funding applications. The current funding round runs until January 31, 2023.

The Start-up Transfer.NRW competition has been in existence since 2014, and there have been eleven rounds since then. By the end of the last funding round in 2020, 239 funding applications had been received, 120 of which received a recommendation. A total of 64 companies have so far emerged from the funding competition. A further 44 projects have not yet been completed.