Germany-wide ranking
Start-up radar: Bergische Uni makes a big leap into the top 10
From advice to events - anyone interested in setting up a business at the University of Wuppertal is supported by the Start-up Centre with numerous support services // Photo Start-up Centre
In the current edition of the Start-up Radar 2025, the University of Wuppertal is ranked 9th and has thus improved by ten places compared to the last ranking report in 2022. A total of 227 universities took part in the voluntary survey conducted by the Stifterverband, which compares start-up activity and start-up support at German universities.
University Rector Prof Dr Birgitta Wolff: "What Prof Christine Volkmann and her team have been doing for years in terms of start-up support is absolutely admirable. Every euro there is an investment in our future viability; not only because we need more start-ups, but also simply more entrepreneurial spirit overall."
Start-up counselling permanently established at the BUW
The Start-up Centre has been funded directly by the university since January 2025. This secures the central contact point for entrepreneurial ideas in the long term and firmly anchors it in the university structure. Thanks to the central funding, the wide range of advice, coaching, events and funding opportunities for prospective founders will be maintained - the BUW also scored highly in the current start-up radar.
"This decision is an important step for the sustainable promotion of entrepreneurship at our university," explains Prof Dr Christine Volkmann, Academic Director of the Start-up Centre. "The permanent institutional support will enable us to further expand our services and support students and employees in the realisation of their business ideas in the long term."
Since its foundation, the Start-up Centre has already provided over 690 consultations, which have resulted in 458 start-up projects - 148 of which were successful start-ups. This impressive record shows how much the ecosystem for entrepreneurship has grown at the university. "The start-up radar that has now been published is proof that the path we have taken is worthwhile and is designed entirely in the interests of prospective founders," says Dr Kazem Mochkabadi, Operational Director of the Start-up Centre.
Further information on the offers is available on the Start-up Centre's website.
About the start-up radar
The start-up radar has been implemented by the Stifterverband in cooperation with and with the financial and technical support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection since 2012. In the study, the authors ask all state and state-recognised private universities about their performance in supporting start-ups. Based on the evaluation, universities, politics and business as well as science sponsors can recognise how far the start-up culture at a university has developed and where there is still potential.
More on the results of the start-up radar: https://www.gruendungsradar.de/
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