EXIST project PATEC – on the way to a founders' university

With the project "Passau – The Entrepreneurial Campus" (PATEC), the University of Passau is pursuing the aim of boosting the spirit of foundation on its campus and developing to become a genuine founders' university. The project is being funded for a period of four years by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as part of the programme "EXIST potentials" (EXIST V). The BMWi is promoting the culture of foundation at tertiary institutions throughout Germany and the creation of the necessary framework conditions for innovative start-ups with a strong growth potential from science. This way, the aim is also to create new jobs in the region with prospects for the future in the mid-term.

The aim: to increase potentials via new measures, priorities and target groups

The aim is to increase the tremendous foundation potential of students and graduates doing their doctorate in all the faculties systematically and even more strongly than has been the case so far. For that reason, in the PATEC project comprehensive measures are being developed at various universities which build on the lectures at the chairs of entrepreneurship, of which there are now three, the start-up financing that has been anchored at the Transfer Centre since 2013, and the very successful certificate programmes on the subject of "Digital Technology and Entrepreneurship" (DTE). Young founders are now already benefiting from the legal advice provided specially for start-ups by the Law Clinic. In the project, the PATEC team – see the list of participants below – will sensitise students and graduates doing their doctorate to the topic of founding a new business, help them to obtain precisely the right qualifications, and advise and assist them in the implementation of their start-up plans.

In detail, the PATEC project envisages supporting those interested in founding a new business with advice and ongoing supervision on their journey from the pre-foundation phase, via market entry, all the way through to initial financing. The project amenities also enable "entrepreneurial employees" to be trained. "Entrepreneurial employees" are employees who promote innovation and the introduction of new technologies in established enterprises. With personalised and event-related formats such as the involvement of foundation ambassadors and the holding of ideation workshops, the aim is to arouse the enthusiasm of students for the topic of entrepreneurship at an early stage. Furthermore, efforts are also being made to build up a community with an affinity for founding with the aid of new network events. As far as qualification goes, new teaching events are being conceptualised, but that is not all; amenities are also being developed in start-up hubs, especially on the topics "business model" and "digitalisation" and the new core themes "interculturality" and "sustainability". (For example, "community nights" on networking are held by each hub, and subject-specific advice amenities are being created based on the Law Clinic model.)

In all these measures, there is a special focus on target groups with a foundation potential that has so far often remained undiscovered: the aim is to activate that potential even more intensively, particularly among students of the humanities, social and cultural sciences and computer science. Another objective is to increase the percentage of women in – increasingly interdisciplinary – founders' teams. And apart from digital business models, entrepreneurship ideas are also being encouraged which are based on sustainable and intercultural innovations and address these extended target groups more forcefully. With the development and establishment of an annual inter-university founders' academy between the universities in Passau, Bayreuth and Mannheim, PATEC aims to address the target group of students and research associates from different fields specifically, sensitise them to the topic of foundation, qualify them, and above all fill them with enthusiasm and inspire them.

Expansion of the founders' network

So that the prospective founders can receive the best possible support, the aim is to continue to expand the existing regional founders' network to include more coaches, mentors, alumni who have founded enterprises themselves, and investors. Many institutions are already on board, including INN.KUBATOR Passau, BayStartUP GmbH, the Hans Lindner Foundation, the Lower Bavaria Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Crafts and Trade of Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, as well as some 20 regional enterprises.

Participants

As well as the Transfer Centre, nine chairs and one institute are participating in PATEC, and they comprise all the faculties at the University of Passau:

• Institute of Applied Ethics in Business, Professional Training and Continuing Education (director: Professor Peter Fonk; executive manager: Dr. Annekatrin Meissner) 
   
• Chair of International Management and Social Entrepreneurship (Professor Suleika Bort)
   
• Chair of Marketing and Innovation (Professor Jan H. Schumann) 
   
• Chair of Marketing and Services (Professor Dirk Totzek) 
   
• Chair of Organisation, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (Professor Carolin Häussler) 
   
• Chair of Strategic Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Professor Andreas König) 
   
• Chair of Data Science (Professor Michael Granitzer) 
   
• Chair of Intercultural Communication (Professor Christoph Barmeyer) 
   
• Chair of Public Law, Media Law and Information Law (Professor Kai von Lewinski)
   
• Chair of Psychology and Human-Machine Interaction (Professor Susanne Mayr) 
   
• Transfer Centre of the University of Passau (executive manager: Dr. Günther Hribek)

Project funding

In the funding programme EXIST Potentials, the PATEC project is being funded to the tune of just under two million euros and for a period of four years by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The programme is supporting the development of a vivacious, energising culture of foundation at tertiary institutions throughout Germany, above all at small and medium-sized institutions which have so far not taken advantage of EXIST funding. The project has a term of four years (09/2020 to 08/2024).