Awarded for our strong start-up culture

University of Stuttgart moves up 14 places in the Start-Up Radar 2020 [ Picture: ENI] In the newly-released Start-Up Radar 2020 ("Gründungsradar") ranking created by the Stifterverband (Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities), the University of Stuttgart jumped 14 places on the previous ranking released in 2018, and is now ranked 12th out of 42 major universities in Germany. The University ranked especially highly in the categories of Start-Up Support and Start-Up Activities (8th out of a total of 45 universities included). Prof. Peter Middendorf, Vice Rector for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at the University of Stuttgart, spoke about the success: "Knowledge-based start-ups play a key strategic role as a transfer path for the University of Stuttgart. So it makes us very happy that the focus on entrepreneurship and startups in our transfer strategy is starting to bear fruit. It's not only in the Start-Up Radar ranking where we've shown a lot of improvement, but we also came near the top when the EXIST grants were awarded in 2019." The key factor behind the University of Stuttgart's success is the range of support programs, which have been expanded considerably over the last few years, through which the University makes students aware of what is involved in starting up one's own business and funds start-up projects. As part of these efforts, the Chair of Entrepreneurship in Technology and Digitalization was established in January 2020, funded by the Daimler fund in the Stiftungverband, which the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI) is affiliated to.