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The best way of networking

On Thursday, 22.02.2024, we hosted an engaging networking event themed “Science Slam”, where the worlds of Chemistry and Biochemistry collided in an atmosphere of innovation and entertainment.

This unique event served as a platform to dive into highly innovative research topics, bringing together science enthusiasts for an evening of exploration into the latest advancements and emerging research fields. Attendees had the opportunity to gain insights into the trajectory of contemporary sciences, technological breakthroughs, and innovative problem-solving approaches, all while fostering connections within the scientific community.

The event also provided valuable insights into diverse career paths, spanning traditional academic routes to industry roles and the establishment of start-ups. Participants discovered how to transform their ideas into tangible products or concepts, addressing significant market challenges and forward-thinking issues. The event offered participants a low-threshold introduction to the variety of different career paths.

Dr. Frank Stenger from Evonik Industries GmbH took center stage as the keynote speaker, setting the tone and offering context for the slam talks. Dr. Stenger shared a decade-long journey through a notable EU-level project, showcasing the evolution from initial idea to its current successful stage. The subsequent slammer talks featured young research fellows presenting top-notch research topics, particularly focusing on process optimization in green hydrogen production with focus on new catalysts and reaction efficiency assessments. Special recognition goes to our outstanding slammers: Anas Akhtar, Christoph Kaiser, and Dr. Kevinjeorjios Pellumbi.

The highlight at the end of the talk session was the award ceremony, where the audience used a highly “significant” clap-o-meter, declaring the winner under biggest fun factors and joy.

The event concluded with a vibrant networking session, allowing participants to connect with professionals from academia, industry, and start-ups in the state-of-the-art facilities of the RUB Makerspace. The benefits of the session included a dynamic, modern environment, experienced and open-minded participants, and easy access to senior executives in the industry and leading academic boards.

These events typically incur no costs, making them accessible to everyone. Stay tuned for updates on our future events and additional interesting activities shared on our LinkedIn page, where we aim to connect you with the wider start-up ecosystem.

Whether you have a concrete start-up idea or simply want to explore potential career paths, join us to uncover a myriad of opportunities for your unique and individual future path.

Young Entrepreneurs in Science (YES) is a further education programme in workshop format and is aimed at doctoral students from all disciplines at German universities. The programme is offered by the Falling Walls Foundation, an international hub that links science, business and politics. RUB students were able to experience the unique atmosphere of the Berlin hub via Start4Chem – and become part of something bigger.

Frederik Lehmann, one of the Start4Chem Startup Coaches, took part in a course. This is what he experienced there:

The courses are aimed primarily at prospective doctoral students and show them an alternative career path alongside industry and academia. In addition to courses on career prospects, the courses primarily provide a new, application-orientated perspective on one’s own research. Using personal examples, the courses sensitise students to entrepreneurial thinking and action and teach them the necessary skills. This can help to facilitate the transfer of your own research results and broaden your career prospects.

The two-day online workshop “From PhD to Innovator” focused on gaining initial insights into the topics of entrepreneurship. The course instructors pointed out the parallels between their own research and the iterative process of realising a start-up project. Due to the familiar atmosphere during the course, the participants were able to easily share their self-reflections with the entire group. The course also taught elementary skills that are useful even before the start-up. The course also taught the presentation of ideas with simple means and low complexity. All participants produced a prototype of their own idea during the course. It was precisely this reduction in complexity that opened up a new space for thought. The subsequent pitch training, the quick conceptualisation of a pitch and its presentation to an internal jury, also made us realise that it can be beneficial to present unfinished concepts and ideas outside of the scientific world. Especially in the entrepreneurial context and in the start-up scene, it is common to present prototypes and ideas in the early stages of development, as early feedback and early contact with potential customers helps to further develop one’s own idea or product. Throughout the workshop, the participants felt challenged and encouraged. They particularly benefited from the encouragement of interdisciplinary communication. We are sure that such experiences can help all scientists, regardless of whether they are aiming for a traditional career path in industry or research or would prefer to push ahead with a start-up idea. Entrepreneurial thinking can be beneficial in all areas and have a positive impact on your own career path.

We bring chemistry and business together. Have you come up with a business idea during your research? Then let’s talk about it.

We help RUB chemists to orientate their research results and business ideas towards the market, provide information on the topic of founding a company and support spin-offs. Our services are aimed at all scientists and students with a background in chemistry, regardless of whether they currently have a promising research result or already have a well-developed business idea.

We support chemists who want to test the market relevance of their research results, for example, with individual coaching in the development of their business model, in preparing for start-up competitions or in applying for public funding such as EXIST or NRW Start-up Transfer.

For all those who would like to get to grips with founding a company for the first time, we have suitable offers from the Ruhr-Universität’s Worldfactory Start-up Centre, such as the Gründer*Innentalks or Entrepreneurship Education at RUB. In particular, we would like to draw attention to our course “From Top Level Science to Top Level Business”, which is accredited by the Faculty of Chemistry and is aimed at all those interested in founding a company.

We also see ourselves in the team as networkers for those interested in founding a company and are happy to establish needs-based contacts. Be it to the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV, to the RUB faculties and administration or to external scientific institutions, to the RUB start-up ecosystem, but also to role models and directly to the chemical industry.

As part of our Start4Chem Labs project, we offer office and laboratory space to those interested in founding a company. In these rooms, teams from chemistry and biochemistry interested in founding a company can advance their real start-up projects and exchange ideas with other people interested in founding a company.

Together with our colleagues at the Worldfactory Start-up Centre, we support a wide variety of teams from the fields of chemistry and biochemistry. They are at different stages of development and have different careers behind and ahead of them. And that is exactly what is important to us. We will support you if you are interested in founding a company – the end is completely open. We look forward to meeting you!

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.