UA Ruhr Universities Strong in Start-Up Support

In the current edition of the Startup Radar 2025, Ruhr University Bochum is in 6th place, improving by three ranks compared to 2022. TU Dortmund University also makes it into the top ten in 8th place (from 13th place in 2022), while the University of Duisburg-Essen improves from 38th to 20th place. 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 approximately every two years.

Tailwind for the national Startup Factories competition
The university management of the UA Ruhr is highly satisfied with the result: "Our excellent performance confirms that we have taken the right path in the strategic promotion of start-ups. The very good rankings in the start-up radar now give us further momentum for our joint application in the lighthouse competition Startup Factories, where we as the BRYCK Startup Alliance, together with the RAG-Stiftung, the Initiativkreis Ruhr and the BRYCK start-up initiative, are already among the top 15 alliances nationwide," say Prof. Barbara Albert, Rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Prof. Manfred Bayer, Rector of TU Dortmund University and Prof. Martin Paul, Rector of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. To strengthen the alliance, the partners also founded the joint UA Ruhr Transfer GmbH at the beginning of the year. "This will enable us to exploit the potential of excellent research even better and pool our strengths even further," say Albert, Bayer and Paul.

Figures are developing positively
According to the Stifterverband's start-up radar, the number of start-ups and start-up projects as well as the number of people working in start-up support at universities in Germany continues to rise overall. At each of the three universities in the UA Ruhr, those interested in setting up a business and those who want to do so will find strong points of contact:

• in Dortmund, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer (CET), which has been funded by the state as an "Excellence Start-up Center.NRW" since 2019,
• in Bochum, the Worldfactory Start-up Center (WSC), which has also been funded as an "Excellence Start-up Center.NRW" since 2019
• in Duisburg and Essen, GUIDE, the Center for Start-ups and Innopreneurship, which has acted as a central point of contact for all those interested in starting a business at UDE since 2020 and was expanded with funding from the "Excellence Start-up Center.NRW"

How the UA Ruhr partner universities fare in detail:

In the current edition of the start-up radar, Ruhr University Bochum lands in an excellent 6th place among the major universities (out of a total of 48 in this category). Seven modules were evaluated, in three of which RUB took the top position nationwide with 1st place: Start-up Support, Networking and Evaluation & Monitoring. The jump in the start-up activities module was particularly large in terms of points, with RUB improving the most in start-up support. With an improvement of three ranks compared to the last survey, Ruhr University was once again able to increase its success under the leadership of Vice-President Prof. Dr. Günther Meschke and WSC Managing Director Marc Seelbach. RUB already achieved a very good 9th place in the last Start-up Radar 2022, and 15th place in the previous ranking in 2020.

TU Dortmund University achieved 8th place among the 48 large universities in the Start-up Radar 2025. It improved its score in particular thanks to a sharp increase in the start-up activities recorded, moving up five places in the overall ranking compared to 2022. TU Dortmund University achieved top marks in the two modules of start-up support and evaluation and monitoring. Over the past three years, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer has also expanded support for founders and anchored the topic of transfer even more broadly, including through a seed fund at TU Capital GmbH, the Entrepreneurship Certificate for students of all disciplines and the development of the transfer mission statement. With its growing number of spin-offs, TU Dortmund University also made it into the top 10 in the German Startup Monitor in 2024.

In the current start-up radar for 2025, the University of Duisburg-Essen improved from 38th place in 2022 to 20th place. In particular, the establishment of the Vice-President's Office for Transfer, Innovation & Digitalization under the leadership of Vice-President Prof. Dr Pedro José Marrón in 2022 has ensured a significant improvement for the university across all building blocks. The University of Duisburg-Essen achieved full marks in the Evaluation and Monitoring category and ranked first here. It also improved significantly in the categories of anchoring start-ups and start-up qualification, achieving almost full marks in each case (9.56 and 9.75 out of 10). The Center for Start-ups and Innopreneurship at the University of Duisburg-Essen (GUIDE), headed by Bernhard Schröder, also makes a significant contribution to the positive development. Targeted measures and programs further strengthen the promotion of entrepreneurial thinking and action.

Press contact

At Ruhr University Bochum: Marc Seelbach
Managing Director Worldfactory
Ruhr University Bochum
Phone: +49 234 32 22477
Email: marc.seelbachruhr-uni-bochumde

At TU Dortmund University: Dr. Ronald Kriedel
Managing Director Centrum für Entrepreneurship & Transfer
Dortmund University of Technology
Phone: +49 231 755 3787
Email: ronald.kriedeltu-dortmundde

At the University of Duisburg-Essen: Bernhard Schröder
Head of the Center for Start-ups and Innopreneurship at the University of Duisburg-Essen (GUIDE)
University of Duisburg-Essen
Phone: +49 201 183 6863
E-mail: bernhard.schroeder.sscuni-duede