Publications, patents and more

Research at UniSysCat is mainly "basic research." Thus the ideal means of transferring knowledge to the public is through publications. As mentioned here, each EC2/BIG-NSE student produces an average of nearly five publications during her or his PhD, a very respectable figure. However, a few PhD topics lead to results that can be patented. This has already happened five times. In a few cases, our students have created their own startup company, in at least one case successfully to our knowledge, while others have joined one. Thanks to the opening of INKULAB in January 2017 (see below for more details), and the creation of the "Chemical Invention Factory" (CIF) in 2019, we hope to see more successful startups from our students in the future. Several alumni already profited from INKULAB in the past three years. The company "nano join," created by a BIG-NSE alumni from Inkulab Team 2018, successfully produces silver sintering pastes which enable electronic connections with maximum heat conduction (details here).

The "nano join" founders at work at INKULAB

Source: CIF webpage

Inkulab

INKULAB stands for " Incubator Laboratory for start-ups at TU Berlin." On the campus of the TU Berlin, right behind the building of the Institute for Technical Chemistry, where many UniSysCat groups are hosted, a laboratory container plant was installed and put into operation, fully equipped with ventilation technology, laboratory furniture and safety equipment.

The aim in creating INKULAB was to support those who have achieved economically viable research results in the field of chemistry at Berlin universities and would like to establish a company. Thus, it closes a gap in technology transfer between research and the development of market-ready products and services in the early start-up phase of companies.

INKULAB supports the start of entrepreneurial independence. It provides a customized infrastructure and an incubation program for scientists involved in life sciences, green chemistry, or nanotechnology. INKULAB is a project of WISTA Management GmbH, the Centre for Entrepreneurship of TU Berlin and the (now terminated) Cluster of Excellence UniCat in cooperation with DexLeChem GmbH.

More information (in German) on the INKULAB webpage

The INKULAB container

The INKULAB labs