Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is essentially concerned with the utilization of research results, such as know-how, inventions, patents, technologies, methods, data or software. Accordingly, scientific institutions promote the transfer of technologies and inventions so that these find their way into application in the form of innovative products, processes and services.

TransferAllianz, 2021, p. 3 (in German), retrieved 9 March 2024, translated by the author.

In addition to research and teaching, TU Dortmund University sees transfer as its core task and is a national and international pioneer in knowledge and technology transfer. As early as 1984, a separate transfer office was set up as part of a pilot project. Since the beginning of 2017, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer (CET), as a central university facility, has initiated and promoted the local and regional networking at TU Dortmund University, its start-up support, strategy-led property rights management and the structuring of TU Dortmund University business collaborations. In addition, TU Dortmund University is a co-founder and shareholder of TechnologieZentrumDortmund GmbH (TZDO). The TZDO is the core of one of the largest technology parks in Europe and promotes the application of ideas from science in the immediate vicinity of the campus.

The success of the start-up support is reflected in the number of spin-offs in recent years. The spin-offs of competence-based start-ups and spin-offs from TU Dortmund University are geared towards long-term economic independence. Some also pursue ecological or social goals and thus contribute to sustainable development. Two specific examples of successful spin-offs that were actively supported by TU Dortmund University are presented below.

Sustainability and the further development of vertical farming are the focus of vGreens. The team has developed a fully automated, hydroponic vertical farm with the aim of producing better quality strawberries in flexibly adjustable quantities at marketable prices. Their pilot production facility is controlled by specially developed software to individually regulate the environmental parameters required by the plants, such as temperature, light intensity and nutrient supply. vGreens was a successful participant in "cetup.PREINC", TU Dortmund University's pre-incubation program, and was supported by an investment from TU capital (in German) in early-stage financing.

Together, the four founders of lodomo are developing a digital platform that enables senior citizens to participate in the digital world. The result is a digital platform for tablets that can be used by senior citizens in elderly care facilities to order meals, book internal services and report damage, for example. Digital content in a home is visualized as everyday objects so that users are introduced to the technology in a playful way with an easy and intuitive user interface. The founders studied at TU Dortmund University and were supported by the CET of TU Dortmund University.

TU Dortmund University is an innovative university and contributes to economic and social development in North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond with the inventions of its researchers. In close cooperation with PROvendis GmbH - a subsidiary of the NRW universities - TU Dortmund University's CET evaluates, protects and exploits the inventions of TU researchers. Many of these inventions have high economic potential and are exploited and put into practice by licensing or selling them to companies; some have served as the basis for the founding of innovative companies in the region. In 2022, TU Dortmund University registered around 15 inventions. Currently, it is not recorded whether the patents are sustainable in the sense of the TU Dortmund University sustainability definition. However, TU Dortmund University is implementing a research information system (Forschungsinformationssystem, FIS), which will  be available for recording research activities and will also take sustainability into account as a characteristic. This will enable automated evaluation in the future. An overview of inventions and property rights is published annually in the publication "Zahlen, Daten, Fakten" (in German). Here you can find further information on the patents of TU Dortmund University (in German).

TU Dortmund University awarded the Dr. Michael Brenscheidt Transfer Prize for the first time in January 2024. The prize is awarded every two years and recognizes special achievements in research transfer and scientific cooperation with practice partners. In 2024, the first prize went to Prof. Anna-Lena Scherger and Jannika Böse for language support for multilingual preschool children. Dr. Alvaro Ortiz Pérez from the Chair of Sensor Technology received the second prize for a commissioned work from the SME sector. The third prize went to photographer Uwe Grützner, who was able to gain new cooperation partners with drone photography.