University research commercialisation in Germany is still a recent development. It began in 1975, when Ruhr University Bochum set up the country’s first tech transfer office, Unikontakt. It was another two decades before the institution formalised the arrangement and set up a limited company, Rubitec, in 1998.
Tech transfer in Germany has lacked a national strategy such as those in France or Ireland, not least due to the legal reality that tertiary education is constitutionally not a federal but a state matter. Indeed, the federal government’s Hochs–chulrahmengesetz (higher education framework law) makes no mention of research commercialisation at all.
Karl Grosse, managing director at Rubitec, said that in 1998, they could identify only Hamburg-Harburg Institute of Technology’s tech transfer company Tuhh Technologie as a viable model. Although many universities across the country have since then set up commercialisation arms, this underlines how recent a development tech transfer is, perhaps explaining the lack of unity with which institutions are still grappling.
Grosse is, however, optimistic about the future for Rubitec and tech transfer in Germany. Indeed, the government has been making advances in creating a more homogenous environment. The Ministry of Education and Research launched Horizon 2020 in Germany in February 2014. The programme is an €80bn ($103.6bn) research initiative setup by the EU for the whole union, and runs from 2014 to 2020.
The programme, however, targets not only university spin-outs but also research and development at more established companies. At the launch, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European commissioner for research, innovation and science, said: “From Hanoverto Düsseldorf, from Stuttgart to Dresden, and of course in Berlin, I have seen how Germany’s genius for science and innovation has sustained your economy through Europe’s most trying economic crisis. I have been very inspired by the scientists and engineers, the innovators and manufacturers that I have met in companies like Bayer and Bosch, and in organisations like the German Aerospace Centre.”
Another initiative trying to fight the splintered reality of German tech transfer is Exist, set up by the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The programme, launched in 1998, is now supporting spin-out creation at 117 universities across Germany.
Exist also supports the German Accelerator, which gives spin-outs the opportunity to visit Silicon Valley for three months. Up to 16 spin-outs are selected each year, with three criteria for eligibility – the spin-out must have completed all in corporation procedures, it must be younger than three years, and it must have a business plan that proves economic viability and growth.
Germany’s commercialisation efforts might still be mostly fractured, but it appears the country is slowly moving towards a more nationally-considered approach.
As for Rubitec, Grosse remains optimistic, and said the future for his tech transfer company was looking bright. “After more than 16 years, we have managed to establish ourselves well, with a good mix of projects, services and patent registrations.”
German Tech Transfer Offices
Bayerische Patentallianz – Bavarian universities
Campus Technologies Freiburg – Freiburg University
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum – German Cancer Research Centre
ESA Patent Agency Saxony-Anhalt – State of Saxony-Anhalt
Fraunhofer Venture – Fraunhofer Institute
Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Infothek – Steinbeis Foundation