Open Venture Factory

Background:

In order to counter the downward trend in innovation spending of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is responding with numerous funding initiatives and financial support. At the forefront of these initiatives is the need for SMEs to keep pace with the increasingly rapid and disruptive pace of innovation.

Project:

The "Open Venture Factory" project aims to provide SMEs with an open platform for cooperative innovation work with start-ups and Fraunhofer institutes. This will significantly facilitate co-innovation in Germany's innovation ecosystem. "AHEAD", the program for Fraunhofer spin-offs is to be opened up for the cooperation with SMEs and start-ups as well, to provide systematic support. This approach will combine the strengths of SMEs, Fraunhofer and start-ups in the co-innovation partnership.

Implementation:

Building on preliminary work from the "InnoTransMitt" and "TechBridge" projects, digital tools are being developed for the implementation of partner initiatives between research institutions, SMEs and start-ups. The development and piloting of instruments to activate the ecosystem aims to identify the need for co-innovation and to assist in the adaptation of the support formats. The design and implementation of these instruments in the Open Venture Factory (OVF) is carried out in close coordination with Fraunhofer Venture. The investigation of the characteristics is intended to show which expectations SMEs and start-ups have of innovation systems and their members, which contribution the various different actors make and at which point in the innovation process a cooperation with the respective actors makes particular sense.

Team at Fraunhofer IMW:

• Anna Pohle (Head of Project)
• Dr. Friedrich Dornbusch
• Dr. Karl Trela
• Dr. Yuri Campbell
• Marlen Weiße
• Jan-Peter Bergmann
• Tim Stach

Project Duration:

1.8.2020 - 30.7.2023