News

October 5, 2022

The Braunschweig-Wolfsburg region will set up an innovative high-tech incubator for mobility start-ups under the leadership of Technische Universität Braunschweig. 4.7 million euros have been allocated for this purpose. On 4 October, Stefan Muhle, State Secretary in Lower Saxony’s Ministry of Economics, Labour, Transport and Digitalisation, handed over the grant notification at the Automotive Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFF).

TU Braunschweig and research institutions in the region are ideal places for spin-off companies. Now the start-up activities can be further strengthened – with an incubator or accelerator and project financing. To this end, Technische Universität Braunschweig has received a funding commitment from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labour, Transport and Digitalisation for the establishment and operation of its own high-tech incubator or accelerator in the field of smart mobility (HTIA Smart Mobility). “Smart mobility” here includes not only mobility in the narrower sense, but also intelligent information and communication technology, which is essential for connecting transport systems.

An incubator serves to support start-ups in their initial phase to shape and implement their business model. Until the start-up has become independent as a company, it serves as a financier and mentor. The incubator also assists in finding premises and transport. The accelerator aims to accelerate the growth of young start-ups. In a pre-selection process, 14 young companies with innovative ideas have already been able to prove themselves as funding candidates. The funding projects are organised by the Entrepreneurship Hub of TU Braunschweig and Ostfalia.

“The fact that HTIA Smart Mobility can now take off is an honour and shows that our university’s focus on mobility has proven very successful and that the joint strategy for knowledge and technology transfer of TU, Ostfalia and the research region offers a lot of potential and complements it perfectly,” says Prof. Angela Ittel, President of TU Braunschweig.

Minister of Economics Dr Bernd Althusmann: “The Braunschweig-Wolfsburg region is a powerful hub for multimodal transport concepts – and one with international appeal. For road, for rail and for air – research is being carried out here in all areas. Solutions for the mobility challenges of our time are found in the region. With Volkswagen, the Braunschweig Research Airport and the Open Hybrid Lab Factory, we already have a heavyweight cluster. It is not for nothing that the outstanding test field for autonomous driving has been placed here in this region. The Smart Mobility high-tech incubator will also succeed in retaining young talent with their dynamic start-ups even better and in creating added value for all of Lower Saxony.”

“The HTI programme is a very important milestone in the entrepreneurship funding of Lower Saxony, where specifically the high-tech start-ups from the universities and research institutions are supported. This makes a major contribution to the sustainable competitiveness of the economy in Lower Saxony and Germany,” says Professor Reza Asghari, Head of the Entrepreneurship Hub.

Professor Thomas Vietor, NFF Board Spokesperson: “With the NFF and the OHLF, we can offer start-ups locations with outstanding research infrastructure and networking opportunities in the field of mobility to develop their high-tech business ideas. The HTIA Smart Mobility thus closes a gap in the funding landscape. Both young companies and the region will be supported in the long term.”

The funding in detail

The funding is granted as a non-repayable grant and consists of two parts: Firstly, a grant for the implementation of the structure and operation of the HTIA of up to 2 million euros and secondly, start-up project funding totalling up to 3 million euros.

Fourteen start-ups and young companies that have recently been founded or are in part about to be founded have already been determined in a selection process by a jury of experts. All start-ups receive a grant of 2,000 euros per co-founder per month (if they have completed their studies or 1,000 euros if they have completed their vocational training) for a period of ten months. In addition, there are financial grants amounting to 100,000 euros in incubation and a maximum of 200,000 euros in acceleration. The HTIA -Incubator and Accelerator of the Entrepreneurship Hub of TU Braunschweig and Ostfalia also offers a variety of qualifying support services, as well as individual mentoring and coaching.

HTIA was initiated by a consortium consisting of the Entrepreneurship Hub (ESH) of TU Braunschweig and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, the Automotive Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFF), the Open Hybrid LabFactory e.V. (OHLF) and the Innovationsgesellschaft Technische Universität Braunschweig mbH (iTUBS).