Technology Transfer

In view of the sustainability goals and the global challenges they address, the development and transfer of technological innovations is an indispensable contribution of science toward the advancement of society.

We advise researchers at the University of Münster on fundamental issues related to intellectual property (IP) and support them in further developing and ultimately commercialising their technological innovations. To this end, we work with the inventors to develop an individual strategy for financing upcoming validation steps, assist them with finding funding opportunities, provide advice on funding formats and help researchers prepare and optimise applications.

We work together with a variety of institutions, such as the REACH - EUREGIO Start-up Center at the University of Münster, regional business development agencies and the patent marketing agency PROvendis GmbH, a subsidiary of universities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Together with our colleagues from the Research Affairs department at the University of Münster and the NRW University IP Network comprised of 29 North Rhine-Westphalian universities and PROvendis GmbH, we develop strategies and processes to steadily optimise and professionalise IP transfer at the University of Münster.

With the support of the Rectorate, we are very pleased to be able to provide inventors at the University of Münster with a validation fund starting in 2024 for the further development of patented inventions.

Funding opportunities

In the area of technology transfer, we help University researchers secure funding. An in-house validation fund is available to help them further develop their inventions created at the University – we are happy to support you in the competitive application process. We will work with you to find individual funding options and advise you on the following funding programmes in particular:

 

 

• Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)
• NRW Patent Validation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIKE)
• Validation Fund of the University of Münster

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Service for businesses and start-ups

We support R&D collaborations between researchers at the University of Münster and business enterprises. You can use the University of Münster’s research portal CRIS to search for relevant expertise. Our technology services highlight selected patented ideas from the University of Münster. With the Explore@REACH innovation service of our REACH Start-up Center, we offer access to the innovative minds of the universities of the German-Dutch EUREGIO (University of Münster, Münster University of Applied Sciences and University of Twente) and bring companies, students and researchers together to develop innovative solutions. Our subsidiary PROvendis GmbH uses the free service innovation2business.nrw to provide companies with the best available expertise from NRW’s universities.

• CRIS research portal at the University of Münster – Overview of diverse research activities and research results
• The REACH Start-up Center of the University of Münster and the Münster University of Applied Sciences support your company with the three services – Explore@REACH, Incubase@REACH and Implement@REACH – throughout the entire innovation process – from identifying the problem to integrating the finished product into your company.
• The MWIKE innovation2business.nrw funding programme allows companies to benefit from the latest developments and research findings from universities in NRW and integrate them into their own innovation processes.

In the case of start-up projects based on the intellectual property (IP) developed at the University of Münster, users are supported by the REACH EUREGIO Start-up Centre at the University of Münster. As a central platform for knowledge- and technology-based start-ups, REACH accompanies those interested in founding a company at the University of Münster on their way from the idea to a successful spin-off.

The REACH Start-up programme consists of individual coaching, start-up-related workshops, inspiring events and networking activities. REACH also provides application support for such funding programmes as EXIST Transfer of Research and GO-Bio. For IP-based start-up projects at the University of Münster, the guidelines for entrepreneurs [de] are available along with information on the process of transferring IP to the start-up.