iTUBS celebrates its birthday

17 years of promoting regional technology and knowledge transfer were duly celebrated to the day on September 15, 2022: iTUBS invited professors, research assistants, stakeholders from politics and business as well as founders from the university environment to a joint evening program at the TRAFO HUB in Braunschweig.
The evening consisted of a colorful mix: In addition to laudatory speeches, honors and presentations on the development of iTUBS to date, Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel, Head of the Department of Biotechnology at TU Braunschweig and co-founder of the biotech start-up Abcalis, among others, provided exciting insights into technology transfer.
In addition, initial details about the TRANSFERNALE 2023 and the new iTUBS format “Impact Challenge” were announced.
The startup talk with Cozy Cabins, Tamdonat and Solar Materials PV and the subsequent opportunity to network and make contacts rounded off the program.

Two years later than expected, but with all the more anticipation and innovative projects, TU Braunschweig’s Innovation Society celebrated its 15+2 birthday last month.
Since the celebrations for the 15th anniversary in 2020 had to be canceled due to the pandemic, all guests from science, business and politics finally came together to toast the milestones achieved so far in the field of knowledge and technology transfer in the research region.
With over 160 technology transfer centers (TTZ ), more than 2,000 projects carried out by professors and research assistants and cooperation with more than 750 companies, iTUBS is now a strong partner in the regional and supra-regional network.
The transfer projects in the fields of mobility, transport, construction, chemistry, pharmaceuticals and aerospace, which have been successfully completed with the help of the innovation company in recent years, deserve special mention.

Managing Director Eduard Klein, who has headed iTUBS since March 2020, looks back on the past few years: “Together with the outstanding scientists from the entire research spectrum at TU Braunschweig, opportunities have been seized, solutions created, innovations unleashed and the world made a little better through cooperation between science and business. We look forward to continuing to work on exciting transfer projects in the future with various partners who want to set new standards with unbridled motivation and drive and strive to drive innovation in view of the current economic and ecological challenges.”

Knud Maywald, Chairman of the Board of Öffentliche Versicherung Braunschweig and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of iTUBS, praised the biotech start-up Abcalis GmbH, which was founded in 2019, as an outstanding example of the quality of spin-offs from TU Braunschweig.
Co-founder Prof. Dr. Dübel, who has also headed the Technology Transfer Centre (TTZ) “Centre for Molecular Engineering” at iTUBS since 2006, then explained its achievements to the audience.
When asked what iTUBS had achieved in biotechnology so far, Prof. Dr. Dübel answered quite casually: “A lot!”
The exemplary timeline (see illustration) shows how the transfer from the Institute of Biotechnology has developed over the years with the help of iTUBS and various funding phases.
In addition to Abcalis GmbH, Yumab GmbH, which was founded in 2012, and CORAT Therapeutics GmbH, which emerged from the university’s Department of Biotechnology in 2020, are just two of the companies that have emerged.
Dübel gave the audience the following tips on founding a company in Lower Saxony: be patient, don’t underestimate yourself, think bigger and, most importantly, just get started.

Exemplary timeline: Technology transfer in biotechnology | Image credit: Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel

In addition to numerous research and development projects and university spin-offs, iTUBS has already organized over 50 meetings and scientific conferences in the last 17 years and brought over 8,000 people from all over the world to the Braunschweig research region.
Based on this expertise, the concept for an innovation festival in south-east Lower Saxony was developed in recent months, which aims to bring the worlds of science and business even closer together.
With the TRANSFERNALE in April 2023, iTUBS, together with the Alliance for the Region, is the main organizer of the eight-day event format in the regional authorities of south-eastern Lower Saxony, which is aimed in particular at the specialist departments and operational level of companies.
The TRANSFERNALE delves into the high-tech topics of the future that are important for the regional economy.

Together with our supporters, we are offering a space for exchange and knowledge transfer that has never existed before.
We are planning events in various formats throughout south-eastern Lower Saxony in order to integrate our cooperation partners in the best possible way and ensure good accessibility for the conference participants.
For example, panel talks on battery development will be held in Salzgitter or workshops in Goslar to develop the best energy storage technologies.

The first cooperation partners include the: Technische Universität Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Clausthal University of Technology, ITS Mobility, Arbeitgeberverband Region Braunschweig e.V., IHK Braunschweig, IHK Lüneburg Wolfsburg, IG Metall Braunschweig and the Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade Chamber of Crafts.

The project is funded by the Transformation Network Southeast Lower Saxony (ReTraSON), which focuses on the transformation of the mobility industry in Lower Saxony and is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

Another highlight of the evening was the launch of the iTUBS format “Impact Challenge“. Jan Wrobel presented the open innovation format, which is intended to offer a kind of game for innovations in the future. In the future, challenges and questions from companies will be brought together with the fresh ideas and innovation potential of students in order to increase the company’s own innovative strength, provide access to new talent and bright minds and establish contact with potential employers on the student side. True to the motto: “From Lecture Hall to Hero.” Further information on the “Impact Challenge” can be found here: https://itubs.de/challenge/.

The startup talk with Cozy Cabins, Tamdonat and Solar Materials PV offered further insights into projects that have emerged from student initiatives, among others. The evening was an all-round successful anniversary for iTUBS, which will certainly be remembered fondly in the future.