"Women's networks provide that special support and energy for prospective female founders," said Özlem Doger-Herter, founder and coach, at the closing ceremony for the first cohort of the EXIST Women program from the Transfer Center enaCom. At the event in the DIGITALHUB, the participants from the University of Bonn looked back together on a successful year. The program offered the necessary know-how, workspaces, mentors and networking opportunities to prepare for self-employment or a start-up. EXIST Women is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and will enter the next round in 2025: applications can be submitted by 5 January 2025*!

Current market trends, competitive analyses or insights into growth opportunities - if you want to find out about markets now, you can use the IBISWorld database This platform offers a wide range of market analyses and industry reports from over 700 industries worldwide. The Transfer Centre enaCom is providing all students, researchers and employees of the University of Bonn with free access to the IBISWorld market database from October to December 2024.

Do you have an innovative idea that ideally solves a problem of our society? Would you like to present this idea and develop it further? Then apply for the ideas competition of the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn! In addition to numerous offers of support, you have the chance to win 1000 euros for your idea. You can submit your idea sketch until 10 November 2024.

“Femtec is a very enriching experience,” says Patricia (student MSc Mathematics), who has been going through the career-building programme since March and has just started the “Innovation Lab” project with Deutsche Telekom. The FEMTEC programme offers STEM students valuable networks in business and science and thus attractive career opportunities. Here they are prepared for their future careers and potential leadership roles. The FEMTEC programme starts twice a year and opens the next application round from October 14 to November 3, 2024. All female students in a STEM master's program are invited to apply!

Do you have an innovative idea and are looking for co-founders for your start-up? Or do you feel the founding spirit but are still looking for a project to get involved in? On the FoundFactory platform, idea providers and people interested in founding a company are matched precisely. Starting in July, the Transfer Center enaCom is offering all members of the University of Bonn free access to FoundFactory services for one year. As a special feature not only professional interests but also personal characteristics are taken into account, so you can be sure to find your dream team for a successful start-up.

The Transfer Center enaCom assists scientists with its specific start-up support services. Among other things, the "Research2UseCase-Canvas" helps to bridge the gap between research projects and potential use cases. For this continuous focus on sciencepreneurship, i.e. the start-up spirit in science and research, the Transfer Center has once again been awarded the "Young Entrepreneurs in Science Campus" certificate.

The lysosome is a part of human cells and has been linked to a variety of diseases, including cancer. Proteins derived from lysosomes have a high potential to serve as biomarkers, which allow to detect diseases in the human body. A research team led by Dr. Dominic Winter (Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and University Hospital Bonn) has developed an innovative assay to analyze these lysosomal proteins and, therefore, to detect potential new biomarkers. With this assay, diseases could be tracked down more efficiently in the future. The project is now being funded with a prototyping grant to further develop the method to commercialization. The grants with a funding amount of up to €50,000 are regularly awarded by the Transfer Center enaCom. Applications for prototype development in 2024 can currently be submitted until 31.05.2024.

Two weeks full of new experiences, encounters, enriching workshops, introspection and insights - this is what the first group of FEMTEC scholarship holders from the University of Bonn experienced at this year's FEMTEC Winter School. In March, the five students traveled to Berlin for a week of workshops and then visited various companies throughout Germany. The Winter School marks the start of the one-and-a-half-year career-building programme, in which the female students from Bonn are prepared for future leadership roles in business or science. The FEMTEC programme starts twice a year and opens the next call of applications from 15.4.-5.5.2024. All female STEM Master's students are invited to apply!