Start-up Initiative

Science

The Start-up Journey of the MAXpreneurs Initiative consists of the phases: Science, Ideation, Pre-Founding and Start-up & Scale-up. In the early science phase of a potential start-up, we would like to introduce you as a scientist to the world of entrepreneurship.

Do you have a scientific insight and want to identify, develop and evaluate its transfer potential?
Would you like to have access to scientists who have taken this step before you? Do you have no or little start-up knowledge and/or want to develop potential use cases of your idea?

Then join us at our MPF Start-up School!

Together with about 10 other interested scientists of the MPG you will go through one of our structured programs offered five times a year.

What do we do for you at the MPF Start-up School?

Our goal is to strengthen your motivation by introducing you to inspiring role models and their spin-off stories and by participating in exclusive discussion panels.
We help you to raise your agile skills to a new level and to check and test your scientific project for its transfer potential.
We will also introduce you to the founding players within the Max Planck Society and raise your awareness of the processes involved in founding a company, such as IP generation and project financing, at an early stage.
We also impart basic knowledge and methods in:
- Agile Methods: How can I use creative tools such as design thinking, idea generation and business modeling on the way from the initial idea to the potential business model?
- Communication: How do I present my idea outside the scientific community in a targeted way?
- Application Scenario & customer definition: How do I develop a solution that is both convincing from the user’s point of view and market and product-oriented? How do I identify potential markets and define initial customers?

After completing the training, you will receive a certificate and, if you wish, we will be delighted to accompany you to the next offer: MPF Start-up Academy.

The Max Planck Foundation supports your participation by covering your travel expenses.

The following events are planned for 2025:

17-18 March 2025, Cologne
03-04 April 2025, Jena, special topic “sustainability”
02-03 June 2025, Munich
03-04 July 2025, Göttingen
09-10 October 2025, Halle

Registration

Registrations for the MPF Start-up School in Jena are no longer possible.

For the MPF Start-up School in Munich, we ask all interested parties to register by May 16, 2025.

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