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Completed Projects

sepHE

The European Commission's study "supporting the entrepreneurial potential of higher education" (sepHE) was carried out by the University of Wuppertal in cooperation with the research and consultancy firm empirica. As part of this study, case studies of twenty European universities in the field of entrepreneurship education were compiled. The study thus addressed the need to generate more evidence of entrepreneurial potential in higher education in order to develop policy recommendations. The research team focussed on activities that have a particular impact on the education of students and thus included both curricular and extra-curricular activities as well as the institutional dimension of entrepreneurship education in higher education. The study thus aims to contribute to a better understanding of the university's capacity to promote entrepreneurial activities and skills. Further information can be found at: http: //www.sephe.eu

biceps Gazelles

bizeps - The University of Wuppertal's start-up initiative is a network of expertise in the Bergisch region and offers students, academics and graduates of the University of Wuppertal advice and services for all aspects of setting up a business. The University of Wuppertal is the initiator and central point of contact for bizeps, which supports start-ups from the university as an entrepreneurial university.

bizeps was launched in 1998 as a project of the University of Wuppertal from the EXIST I and II funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Since 2005, the University of Wuppertal and regional partners have financed the initiative from their own funds. The project is coordinated by the Science Transfer Centre of the University of Wuppertal.

In November 2007, the project "bizeps Gazelles - Rapid Creation and Development of Innovative Ventures" was approved in the new EXIST III funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in the field of energy and environmental technology. bizeps Gazelles was a project of the Institute for Start-up and Innovation Research (IGIF).

Further research projects can be found at www.igif.de.

CAL4INO

CAL4INO (Creative Activitiesin Learning forInnovation) is a research project that was carried out as part of the European Union's Lifelong Learning Programme. The CAL4INO consortium consisted of six educational organisations, two institutes and a scientific book publisher from a total of six European countries. The project partners included the University of Cambridge, Queens University Belfast and the Emerald Publishing Group. The overall aim of the project was to investigate the role of creative learning activities in promoting innovation. In this context, entrepreneurial learning was analysed with a focus on universities and their central role in the modern knowledge society as clusters and ecosystems to foster creativity and innovation. As part of the project, the University of Wuppertal was responsible for carrying out the third work package (Desk Research and Needs Survey). The aim was to ensure that the CAL4INO research programme takes into account and extends the state of the art on creative learning and innovation at a technical, social and institutional level.

Further information can be found at: http: //www.cal4ino.com/

Factors for successful start-ups in the renewable energy sector

As part of the research project, the Institute for Start-up and Innovation Research and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy focussed on technical innovations in renewable energy technologies and the resulting successful start-ups. The project was commissioned by the Technical University of Berlin as part of the thematically overarching project "Innovation Biography Renewable Energies".

The aims of the project were

  • to improve the management of future innovation processes in the field of renewable energy technologies by identifying technical innovations and their drivers in the individual renewable energy markets;
  • to identify relevant factors for successful business start-ups in the individual renewable energy markets in Germany
  • analysing these factors with regard to their external influence and their contribution to company success and the respective market development of RE, and
  • using this as a basis to derive recommendations for policymakers on how to create the most appropriate framework conditions possible to ensure the continued successful and robust expansion of renewable energies.


The project results were summarised and published in a brochure prepared by the Technical University of Berlin as part of the research project "Innovation Biography of Renewable Energies".