For the first time, Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School for Economics and Law) receives federal funding through the EXIST programme to expand its successful startup activities. The university strengthens its profile as an entrepreneurship hub.

At the Gründungsradar 2018 of the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft, the HWR Berlin emerged as one of the best universities of applied sciences in Germany. The founding university is now receiving financial support from the EXIST funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) to further develop its startup network.

“We are very pleased about the approval of the subsidies and are taking advantage of the opportunity that the EXIST programme / potentials offer us within the framework of the EXIST startup culture programme to sharpen the profile of our entrepreneurial activities,” says Christian Gurol, Head of Startup Incubator Berlin, the startup centre of HWR Berlin. In the six-month concept phase, four defined fields of work will be prepared with targeted measures to promote startups, before these are then implemented in the project phase.

Gurol foremost sees strength and potential in entrepreneurship education, the founding university as Startup Incubator and in active relations to Berlin’s economy and international partners. The entrepreneurship network of the university relies on

  • the establishment of an international entrepreneurship campus as a contact point for international and internationally-oriented students,
  • the integration of incubation and education with the aim of further developing common methods and offers of teaching and startup support,
  • to expand the cooperation network sustainably, to develop partnerships with the regional economy quantitatively and qualitatively, and
  • economic sustainability by developing a business model for entrepreneurship activities.

“The BSEL has continuously promoted entrepreneurship education and thinking in all areas of study and research over the past 18 years,” emphasises Prof. Dr. Sven Ripsas. The professor for entrepreneurship to the BSEL refers to the successful establishment centre of the university, which was repositioned five years ago and aligned after the lean startup principle. Two years ago, the new startup campus of the Startup Incubator Berlin opened at the Siemens AG site in Berlin. In cooperation with established companies and the BIT6 network of Berlin’s universities of applied sciences, an important innovation centre has been created in the founding capital.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, president of the HWR Berlin, says: “Our students and our teachers benefit from the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking in all areas of practice-oriented teaching and research at the HWR Berlin. We create the framework to enable creative startup teams to develop together with established companies and thus offer a focal point for knowledge transfer between universities and industry,” says Zaby.