On 8 October, the Braunschweig Office for Regional Development handed over the funding decision for InnoREG: With the new funding project, the Technical University of Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and the business development agencies from Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Gifhorn want to specifically promote knowledge and technology transfer in the region. The focus is on cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to identify innovation potential and jointly develop sustainable solutions.
The funding decision was presented by Astrid Paus, Head of Department at the Braunschweig Regional Development Office, at a kick-off event. The project is part of the "Zukunftsregion Südostniedersachsen" and is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), among others. The aim is to network science and business even more closely and to strengthen the region's innovative power in the long term.
A central element of InnoREG are two innovation scouts who, in close coordination with the participating economic development agencies, contact companies, especially SMEs, as well as other organisations such as social institutions and visit them on site. There they analyse individual innovation needs and identify specific opportunities for cooperation with the universities.
Professor Arno Kwade, Vice President for Transfer and Innovation at TU Braunschweig, emphasised in his welcoming address that universities have a broad range of expertise and strong innovation potential that should be used much more than before by the regional economy to promote innovation in SMEs, but also to solve challenges in production, digitalisation and organisation in the long term. Accordingly, the InnoREG project enables the transfer service to expand the regional innovation ecosystem between universities and SMEs in a targeted manner in order to generate added value.
Jörg Saathoff, Head of Technology Transfer at TU Braunschweig's Transfer Service, and Kai Hillebrecht, Head of Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Ostfalia, agree that the speed at which new products and services have to be developed today poses major challenges for SMEs in particular. Jörg Saathoff adds: "Our task is to promote dialogue between universities, industry and society in order to transfer the latest scientific findings into practical applications."
Björn Hobus, one of the innovation scouts, adds: "Our discussions not only generate new ideas for the companies - the universities also receive valuable impetus from practice. This is exactly where we come in with our InnoREG project."
From needs analysis to project implementation
The project is based on an actively managed, systematic process:
- Survey of innovation needs among companies and organisations.
- Networking with suitable research partners in the regional innovation ecosystem.
- Initiating joint projects that result in new products, services or processes.
Through targeted knowledge and technology transfer, innovation scouting enables innovations that actively shape regional change - for example in the areas of digitalisation, artificial intelligence or sustainability.
Strong partnership - open structure
A special feature of InnoREG is the close cooperation between universities and business development organisations. This structured cooperation makes it possible to develop needs-based and customised transfer offers.
The project is open to other partners and thrives on active exchange within the region.
About InnoREG
InnoREG is a joint project of TU Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, the City of Braunschweig, WIS - Wirtschafts- und Innovationsförderung Salzgitter GmbH and Landkreis Gifhorn Innovation & Service GmbH. It is supported by ERDF funds, the city of Braunschweig and the participating business development organisations from Salzgitter and Gifhorn. The project is part of the regional development programme Zukunftsregion Südostniedersachsen (SON) and is initially scheduled to run for three years.
