From research to final application, from an initial idea to its implementation: researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) cooperate successfully with organizations and institutions of all sizes and from all sectors, regionally, nationally, and globally. Bilateral projects between organizations and individual university institutes as well as participation in joint projects with several partners from research and industry play an important role here.

Collaboration with industry offers JGU the opportunity to acquire additional third-party funds. Researchers were thus able to obtain third-party funds amounting to approx. EUR 17.5 million in 2008, solely due to cooperation with industrial enterprises. In general, these research collaborations involve graduates with the goal of providing them with opportunities to get acquainted with industry-relevant research subjects as well as to get into contact with potential employers.

The Research and Technology Transfer staff unit at JGU provides active support during the course of these processes and acts as interface between science and business. It is thus the central point of contact between companies and the university. The tasks and responsibilities of an operating technology transfer include the management of cooperation negotiations between companies, associations, local authorities, academia, and science as well as an active participation in the design and negotiation of individual contracts.

Close networking with a large variety of scientific and business institutions, on the regional and national level, as well as with representatives from chambers and associations contributes substantially to the success of technology transfer.

Apart from the aforementioned services, technology transfer activities focus on aspects such as support for business founders, trade fairs, and exhibitions, but also on questions regarding patent and copyright issues. In order to make the research results accessible to the general public, JGU regularly exhibits at trade fairs, which are organized and carried out by the Research and Technology Transfer staff unit. In 2009, researchers at JGU presented their largely patent-protected research results at the didacta, CeBit, Hanover Industrial Fair, and Medica. With regard to the utilization of scientific results that can be legally protected, JGU works closely with IMG Innovations Management GmbH, which supports the university in the patenting and marketing of service inventions. In 2008 and 2009, JGU received 60 invention disclosures, of which 30 were unlimited claims and for which patent applications were filed. At the same time, revenues amounting to approx. EUR 800,000 were generated throughout the transfer or out-licensing of existing trade mark rights to commercial businesses.

A particularly successful example of close cooperation in the university sector is the Association of Knowledge and Technology Transfer at the Rhineland-Palatinate universities, in which the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, the University of Koblenz-Landau, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Trier University pursue a holistic innovation funding concept, which takes into consideration economic and technological as well as social, political, ecological, and administrative dimensions of social change. The essential aim of this merger is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge and technology transfer by means of coordinated actions, joint knowledge, and technology marketing as well as intensive technology and know-how screening, initially focusing on the technology fields of materials sciences and information and communication technology/media.

Your Contact:

Dr. Wolfgang Stille Officer for Technology Transfer Deputy Director - Patent issues, employee invention law - Research cooperation and -contracts, Seperate Costing - Liaison with industry, industrial organizations, chambers and professional bodies - Fairs and exhibitions - Business start-ups (see also Start-up Businesses) Tel +49 6131 39-26866