The proverbial ivory tower has two missions. The first is research, the second is teaching, the classic tasks of universities and colleges. And then there are those who want to add a third mission to that. They want to bring knowledge and technology from the universities into society. Tear down the ivory tower, so to speak.
Helmut Schönenberger is working on this third mission. He is an engineer, professor at the Technical University of Munich and head of UnternehmerTUM. The university’s start-up center was founded by BMW heiress Susanne Klatten; Schönenberger sees it as a model for Germany.
He made this clear on Wednesday when he, together with Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, campaigned in Munich for more spin-offs and the transfer of patents from universities to their start-ups. This would ensure that the ivory tower spits out many new companies from students and doctoral students. Germany is a leader in research, but with all this knowledge, Schönenberger says too few companies are founded. The state must create “innovation-friendly conditions”. With such a mandate from politics, “even those with reservations can be won over”.
US universities like Stanford are leading the way, and their start-up ecosystems include Instagram and Netflix. In Germany, Berlin, Munich and Darmstadt have the most start-ups per capita because of their universities and research institutions, Schönenberger calculates in a video call before the event. However, individual universities are barely able to keep up with the academic-entrepreneurial ecosystems in California, Texas or Massachusetts. Schönenberger says of Germany: “Many universities are doing research and providing outstanding teaching, now they need an equally good strategy for spin-offs.”
“We need a broad alliance for more entrepreneurial spirit.”
One percent of university budgets must be made available for the “third mission.” German universities must specialize more in aviation, AI, healthcare, food technology – instead of competing with each other in these fields.
Stark-Watzinger says: “We need a broad alliance for more entrepreneurial spirit in Germany.” The minister has come to Munich while she is under pressure in Berlin. Thousands of scientists – including four from the Technical University of Munich – have turned against her because her ministry was considering cutting funding for professors who made political statements. The teachers had campaigned against the police deployment in a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the Technical University of Berlin. The state secretary, who Stark-Watzinger says was solely responsible, was dismissed. But many scientists blame the minister herself.
There is no protest in Munich. Stark-Watzinger emphasises the political value of university spin-offs: “Mastering technologies is a factor of sovereignty.” According to the traditional understanding of the university landscape, this naturally means commercialisation. The usability of research should count more, as can be seen in the patents. With the smoothest possible IP transfer – IP stands for Intellectual Property (intellectual property) – spin-offs from universities stand or fall, says Schönenberger. In any case, too few patents come from Europe compared to the USA in future fields such as applied artificial intelligence (AI) and next-generation materials and computers.
Three founders from the Technical University of Munich will present themselves to Stark-Watzinger at the event. They also emphasize how important patent issues were in their start-ups, whether for robots or 3D printing technology.
Founder Maria Laparidou introduces her start-up Orbem to the minister. Her technology is an AI-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging scanner. It can be used on conveyor belts to scan eggs. This will reduce the number of male chicks that are not used in battery cages and are shredded.
The strength of AI is the ability to recognize patterns. Orbem promises that its technology can recognize eggs with male chick embryos and also eggs without embryos. These eggs are sorted out and processed into animal feed, for example. This means that no more chicks have to be killed. In English, the process is called in ovo sexing. Stark-Watzinger says: “A prime example of how AI enables the next big leap.”
Another founder has developed a technique to heat plastics in 3D printing using LED light instead of lasers. This is supposed to save money. Stark-Watzinger jokes: “We are currently building a research ship that Polar Star – can you print this out?”