WHAT IS THE “Gründervilla”?

The “Gründervilla” is an institution of the BTU Cottbus (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus), which originated from the project “Development of a Workshop for Entrepreneurial and Team Competence for Diverse Disciplines and Start-up Teams (EXIST GTW)”. This project, involving several departments at the BTU Cottbus, was publically funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the European Social Fund (ESF) from 2008 to 2011. The Gründervilla was a sub-project at the Chair of Organization, Human Resource Management and General Management (Prof. Christiane Hipp).

The offering of the Gründervilla is geared towards people from the academic community with or without entrepreneurial ideas, who want to develop their entrepreneurial skills (such as team skills, decision making skills, creativity) and who desire to start their own business. We thus focus on individuals and groups who are still at the beginning of the entrepreneurial process as well as on those who want to practice their entrepreneurial thinking and acting outside the narrower context of founding.

PROJECT FRAMEWORK

· EXIST III - Project at the BTU Cottbus

· Duration: From January 1, 2008 until March 31, 2011

· Public funded by: German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology as well as the European Social Fund (ESF)

· Other chairs which were involved in the project:

Department of Marketing and Innovation Management

Department of Production Management

Department of Economic and Industrial Sociology

· Ensuring sustainability by continuing selected offerings also after the project deadline.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

What is EXIST III?

EXIST III supports projects at universities and research institutions which contribute to the durable establishment of entrepreneurial culture and strengthen the start-up activities at universities and other research institutions. EXIST III is a support program of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and is co-financed by the funds of the European Social Fund (ESF).

EXIST – Key objectives

1. The durable establishment of entrepreneurial culture at universities

2. The consequent transfer of scientific research results into economic value creation

3. The purposive advancement of the potentials of entrepreneurial ideas and entrepreneurial personalities at universities and research institutions

4. The significant increase of the number of innovative start-ups and thus the creation of new and secure jobs

(From Kulicke, M., Stahlecker, T., Lo, V., & Wolf, B. (2006). EXIST - Existenzgründungen aus Hochschulen. Bericht der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung zum Förderzeitraum 1998 bis 2005 (Kurzfassung) [EXIST – University-Based Business Start-Ups. Report about the academic support of the public funding period of 1998 – 2005. Summary version]. Berlin: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie, S. 9.

EXIST III at the Chair of Organization, Human Resource Management and General Management

In the course of the project activities the Chair of Organization, Human Resource Management and General Management was responsible for the promotion of entrepreneurship at the university in three lines of action:

· Early-stage consultation of those interested in start-ups and providing infrastructure

· Extra-curricular training of university staff members and students

· “Ideas at the university”: Detecting, collecting, processing and further developing entrepreneurial ideas

These tasks were offered under the umbrella of the “Gründervilla”.

During the project much has been achieved and many got initiated. The offerings presented under the umbrella of the Gründervilla will partly be available after the end of the project – in order to continue the professional support of the initiated movements in and around the BTU. Thereby both research results from other projects at our chair (e.g. project MobI^UP ) as well as new important issues and ideas (e.g. corporate succession) will be included in the new offerings after the end of project.

A list of updated services the Gründervilla may be found under the tab “Services”. The “... and how was it?” tab presents some reviews and opinions on the services offered. Under the “Transfer material” you will find useful information, interesting ideas and transfer materials of the project. The tab “Team” will give you information about the people behind the Gründervilla. Finally, the archive offers a selection of press reports and earlier events and activities.

Your Gründervilla team!