On the way to the StartMiUp Factory Sustainable Life, the universities in Central Hesse have reached a first milestone: Federal Minister of Economics Dr. Robert Habeck announced the participants in the concept phase of the EXIST lighthouse competition “Startup Factories” in Berlin on June 6th. As one of a total of 15 associations, the StartMiUp Innovation and Startup Campus Central Hesse now has a nine-month funding phase to further develop the project and qualify as one of up to 10 projects for the implementation phase from June 2025.

With the “Startup Factories” lighthouse competition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) wants to strengthen regional startup ecosystems at universities and research institutions with a strong start-up capacity. Through collaboration with public and private partners, the federal government's support is aimed at transferring it to commercial exploitation via innovative spin-offs. The actors come together under the umbrella of a company (Startup Factory) and then build start-up supporting structures and instruments in their own business model.

For over four years, the StartMiUp network has successfully supported innovative Start-ups from Justus Liebig University Giessen , Philipps University Marburg, and the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen . "With its transition from a temporary EXIST grant to a permanently funded institution, we have laid the foundation for the StartMiUp Factory Sustainable Life," says President Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss of Philipps University. The Hessian Minister of Science, Timon Gremmels, warmly congratulates the StartMiUp team and wishes them much success in the upcoming concept phase of developing the project proposal. He emphasizes: "Given the enormous challenges we face as a society, it is becoming increasingly important to quickly apply scientific findings so that they can contribute to solving pressing social, ecological, or economic issues. There is enormous potential for this at our Hessian universities. Startups can successfully utilize this potential with the support of their universities—their success in the competition impressively demonstrates this."

The StartMiUp Factory's focus on the cross-cutting areas of life and health, resource efficiency, digitalization, and sustainable transformation connects the research fields of the universities with the technology fields of the region's corporate partners. "The StartMiUp Factory will make a significant contribution to giving growth-oriented Start-ups and thus the economic region of Central Hesse a decisive boost," says Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz, President of Justus Liebig University Giessen . "This puts us well on our way to becoming the Startup State of Hesse, with the best conditions for dynamic young companies," adds Kaweh Mansoori, Hessian Minister of Economic Affairs.

Regional companies are a success factor for this. They operate specialist incubators and accelerator hubs at their locations and thus support the Start-ups with know-how and company resources. Prof. Dr. Matthias Willems, President of the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen , adds: “With the StartMiUp Factory we want to further expand our network of companies and regional partners and attract advanced Start-ups in the growth and acceleration phase nationally and internationally.” The StartMiUp Factory Sustainable Life With its profile and governance structure, it would like to become a role model with a role model for a successful startup ecosystem in polycentric regions.

The StartMiUp Innovation and Startup Campus Central Hesse is a cross-university institution according to Section 53 of the Hessian Higher Education Act of the Justus Liebig University Giessen , the Philipps University Marburg and the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen and emerged from the joint, BMWK-funded project under the umbrella of the Research Campus of Central Hessen “StartMiUp Startup Network Central Hesse” (2020 – 2024).