1st Bergisch Innovation and Eduction Convention: A Total Success

The 1st Bergisch Innovation and Eduction Convention at the Freudenberg Campus was attended by around 130 experts and entrepreneurs. The event was organised by the University of Wuppertal and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Wuppertal-Solingen-Remscheid together with the Bergisch Development Agency and the Wuppertal and Solingen Technology Centres. Sträter and Koch both agree that: “We have completely succeeded in accomplishing our goal of collaborating on novel concepts for the development of the Bergisch tri-city area as a centre of innovation and eduction”.

In her welcoming address, Svenja Schulze, Minister for Innovation, emphasised the importance of regional collaborations, stating that: “The Bergisch tri-city area successfully demonstrates that collaboration between members of the region’s research and business communities can result in new development opportunities for the tri-city area”.
The minister praised the constructive collaboration between research and industry within the Bergisch Land Region.

The Wuppertal University Friends and Alumni Association (GFBU) invited participation in the inaugural Bergisch Prize for Research & Knowledge Transfer competition. “With this prize”, said Rüdiger Theis, Deputy Chairman of the GFBU; “we wish to honour those researchers who have achieved outstanding results in the context of pure and applied research collaborations thereby making a major contribution in the field of research & knowledge transfer”. The prize includes an endowment of 15,000 euro. (For additional information, please see: www.gfbu.uni-wuppertal.de.)

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Dieter Spath of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Management and Organisation (IAO) in Stuttgart pointed out the requirement for strategic innovation management and emphasised the importance of a highly qualified skilled workforce.

Participants in three workshops considered ways to improve research & knowledge transfer, ensure a sufficient number of well-qualified young experts, and provide support for technology-oriented business start-ups.

The convention was accompanied by an exhibition in which numerous project teams from the Bergisch Land Region working at the interface between industry and science were given an opportunity to present their work to an interested public.

Over the past few years, collaboration between the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the University of Wuppertal has increased significantly. Both the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the University of Wuppertal wish to reinforce innovation transfers between the university and regional enterprises, attract more young students to the University of Wuppertal and to promote early links between students and local businesses in order to counteract the shortage of specialists. In the context of this collaboration, joint projects with the Bergisch Development Agency and the Wuppertal and Solingen Technology Centres have been expanded considerably.