Ruhr-University Bochum offers those interested in founding a company a great starting point for building an interdisciplinary team.
In particular, spin-offs with a strong focus on sustainability are more successful through interdisciplinary collaboration. Truly sustainable products, services or technologies and the complex socially relevant challenges of our time can no longer be developed and solved by individual, isolated experts – instead, cooperation and collaboration with different experts and all-round talents are required. With its 21 faculties, numerous research areas and its own start-up centre, Ruhr-Universität offers an ideal climate for sustainable innovations and spin-offs.
Chemistry is a good example of the combination of sustainability and interdisciplinarity. This is because many research projects in chemistry are already committed to at least one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a very early stage (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). In order for the full potential of an idea to unfold and a market-ready product to emerge, a wide range of expertise from outside the chemical industry is also required.
As the Start4Chem incubator of the Worldfactory Start-up Centre at the Ruhr University Bochum, we support prospective founders in integrating complementary expertise into the team. Chemistry teams in particular are usually excellently positioned in their own specialism. However, as the start-up project progresses, they often realise that they also need business or engineering expertise. They often lack the necessary expertise and team members in the areas of marketing and sales to get future customers and investors excited about their idea. External advice alone is usually not enough. At Start4Chem, we help you find the right team members so that they are as diverse and interdisciplinary as possible. One option, for example, is the Stellenwerk platform. There, start-up teams can advertise their search free of charge under the category “Wer gründet mit?” (https://www.stellenwerk-bochum.de/jobboerse/wer-gruendet-mit) and search for suitable members. Even after a strong team has been found, we will continue to be at your side: we support you in working through ideas, team building and all relevant questions in the start-up phase – so that the chemistry in your team is right.