Start-up hub in Eastern Bavaria pools forces in the region

The six state universities and colleges from Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, including the University of Passau, have joined forces to form a start-up hub in Eastern Bavaria and are working together to train entrepreneurial talent at the colleges and universities.

The network comprises the University of Passau, the University of Regensburg and the OTH Regensburg, the OTH Amberg-Weiden, the TH Deggendorf and the Landshut University of Applied Sciences. Thanks to various transfer and digitalisation projects, the East Bavarian universities and colleges are already experienced in working together. "Our aim is to jointly tap into the start-up potential at the local universities and colleges and to network better," says Professor Carolin Häussler, Chair of Business Administration with a focus on Organisation, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Passau. Together with Professor Dirk Totzek, holder of the Chair of Business Administration with a focus on Marketing and Services, she is leading the initiative on behalf of the University of Passau.

In the Eastern Bavaria Start-up Hub, existing offers at the individual universities and colleges are made available to founders from all universities in the network and supplemented by new measures. "Our new measures are geared towards the entrepreneurial process, i.e. from the idea to market maturity and financing," says Professor Sean Patrick Saßmannshausen, Professor of Entrepreneurship at OTH Regensburg and coordinator of the network. "It is important that each university contributes its own specific strengths and that we create a platform with the Eastern Bavaria Start-up Hub where university members from all over Eastern Bavaria who are interested in founding a company can meet."

All of this contributes to interdisciplinarity and creates additional start-up opportunities at the interfaces of innovative technologies and social trends. The funding provides more sustainability and therefore stability for existing offers. In addition, it allows new and cross-university impulses to be set throughout Eastern Bavaria.

Breaking down mental barriers in the start-up process

"We know from both research and practical experience the importance of start-up training. It reduces the perceived challenges in the start-up process and at the same time increases confidence in being able to influence one's own success," says Professor Saßmannshausen. The qualification programme focuses on this effect, which not only leads to more successful start-ups, but also to more start-ups.

"The Ostbayern Start-up Hub enables the University of Passau to optimally network its extensive entrepreneurship offerings with other universities. Thinking and acting entrepreneurially is attractive for the qualification of our students from all faculties and is in growing demand. For this year's Honours Degree in Entrepreneurship, we have already been able to attract participants from partner universities in the Eastern Bavaria start-up hub and are looking forward to further expanding our cooperation," says Dr Maria Diekmann, Programme Director of Passau the Entrepreneurial Campus (PATEC). The University of Passau is contributing the well-established Entrepreneurship Day as a central event for networking between founders, students, alumni, entrepreneurs and universities.

From December 2023, the State of Bavaria will provide the Eastern Bavaria Start-up Hub with funding of 1.84 million euros for five years. After these five years, a continuation of the start-up hub has been announced in the event of a positive evaluation. The funding is provided by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts as part of the "Hightech Transfer Bayern" initiative.

Further information

• Website of Passau the Entrepreneurial Campus (PATEC)
• PATEC on Linkedin
• Funding by the Bavarian State Ministry

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Carolin Häussler (Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit Schwerpunkt Organisation, Technologiemanagement und Entrepreneurship) Prof. Dr. Dirk Totzek (Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit Schwerpunkt Marketing und Services)
Project period	01.12.2023 - 31.10.2028
Source of funding	BayStMWK - Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
Projektnummer	F.2-F4460/1/194