Promoting business start-ups together

The University of Oldenburg and the Jade University of Applied Sciences want to jointly increase the number and quality of start-ups from the universities. This was agreed by the two universities with the signing of a co-operation agreement.

The services of the University's Start-up and Innovation Centre (GIZ), which was officially opened in April, are now also available to students and academics at the Jade University who are interested in setting up a business. In future, they will also be able to take advantage of the services offered by the university's Entrepreneurship Chair as part of the EXIST IV programme.

"We see it as our responsibility to promote innovation and competitiveness in the region. Competently supporting excellently trained students and scientists on their way to self-employment is a benefit for everyone: for creative founders as well as for the economy of the northwest region," emphasised University President Prof. Dr Babette Simon on the occasion of the signing.

Dr Elmar Schreiber, President of Jade University, added: "The agreement on the GIZ once again documents the good and close co-operation between the University of Oldenburg and Jade University. The start-up centre is of great importance for the university with its very practice- and user-oriented curricula and for our graduates and also contributes to the knowledge transfer to the companies in the study locations."

In 2011, the University of Oldenburg was honoured as one of the three start-up universities in Germany in the "EXIST start-up culture" competition. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology awarded the title as part of the EXIST IV programme. What is special about the university's start-up concept is that it strongly involves the regional economy. The central component of the concept is the Start-up and Innovation Centre (GIZ). It offers professional advice, coaching and training before, during and after the start-up and is the central point of contact for start-ups from the regional universities.