Herzenslust. Das neue Arbeiten. Innovative university course with business enterprises
“Herzenslust. Das neue Arbeiten” (“Zest for life. The new way of working.“) – that’s the name of an entirely new university course developed by the WTZ West for the 2016/17 winter semester. The course brings together students of the Mozarteum and Paris Lodron Universities of Salzburg to find interdisciplinary answers to current business problems. By thinking outside the box and applying method transfer techniques, the students come up with unconventional solutions and often also discover new directions for their own career paths.
The ten participants work together with work-life balance consultant and career coach Christian Holzer and Michael Malkiewicz of the Mozarteum University. “If creativity is the new currency for innovative business achievements, our students deliver the kind of unconventional impulses that companies need,” is what organizers say about the lecture.
Feedback of the participating company representatives has been very positive, among them Rafael Walter (CEO PeterDaniellPorsche-Holding), Sarah Trappl, Julia Ganglbauer and Steffanie Merz (Biogena Naturheilmittel), Christian Kolbitsch (Binder Holz, Tirol) and Martin Mader (Career Center PLUS).
Contact: Dr.phil. Michael Malkiewicz, Mozarteum University of Salzburg
Day of Salzburg University
The University of Salzburg organised the „Day of University“ at Unipark Nonntal. Young researchers envited visitors to take a deeper look into their work and get in touch with questions and solutions of the future. The WTZ-West movie gives you an insight into the exiting world of science and technology.
Contact: Mag. Alexandra Wagner, University of Salzburg
Innovation Days 2017
Problem solving in only 48 hours! The students where showing creativity, cleverness and lots of passion in providing new solutions for customer needs.
Contact: Mag. Alexandra Wagner, University of Salzburg
„Careers in Industry“ ” once again hits bull’s eye in 2017
On occasion of the “Life Science PhD Meeting” taking place on April 18 and 19, 2017, the University of Innsbruck once again hosted the “Careers in Industry” event. On April 18, many students seized the chance to find out about job opportunities at local pharmaceutical, biotechnological and medical-technical companies.
About 80 participants joined the talks with company representatives of Sandoz, Montavit, Oroboros Instruments, Biocrates Life Science, Bionorica Research, Vira Therapeutics and MED-EL. The event was organized in cooperation with the WTZ West and the Cluster Life Sciences Tirol.
Contact: Pamela Schech, CRA , Medical University of Innsbruck
I3.cubature workshop in Innsbruck and Salzburg: simple design of spaces and processes with the help of mobile and modular elements
Imagine hosting a workshop. It takes places in a run-of-the-mill seminar room, with standard tables, chairs, a projector, flip chart and presentation case. You take a look around and think: How can I create an inspiring, creativity-inducing atmosphere in here? After all, you want to develop solutions for a sales problem in your company here! Luckily, this “run-of-the mill problem“ is now a thing of the past!
Together with the Linz University of Arts, artist and architect Clemens Bauder has developed two mobile prototypes for creativity-inducing, process-oriented seminar equipment. These novelty features were first used and tested by members of the WTZ West on April 11 and 12, 2017 in Innsbruck and Salzburg.
The first bit of “furniture” was a mobile, stackable set of boxes, filled to the brim with different prototyping materials. In addition, Clemens Bauder used a mobile partition system that allows you to set up a room divider that can also be used as a blackboard and magnet board in no time at all from lightweight and handy wood panels. With this perfect setting for creativity, exchange, communication and teamwork, it was easy for the participants to come up with great ideas.
Contact: Mag. Kathrin Anzinger, University of Art and Design Linz
Materials Matter – Laboratory opening
In our times of limited resources and an ever-increasing demand for energy, it takes readily available earth materials to keep up our standard of living. That’s why the interdisciplinary team of the Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials of the University of Salzburg is working on finding the next generation of sustainable high-tech materials. Their new image film “Materials Matter” was first presented on occasion of the opening of the new laboratory building, which stands for further expansion and strengthening of the University of Salzburg’s technical disciplines. The image film plays an important part in presenting the research field of Chemistry and Physics of Materials to the general public as well as to potential business partners and future students.
Contact: Mag. Alexandra Wagner, University of Salzburg
Funding opportunities for cooperative research projects
In addition to classic funding options for fundamental research, public authorities often also offer interesting opportunities for cooperation projects between universities and companies. While funding programmes of the FWF and ÖNB show decreasing funding rates, alternative programmes are often surprisingly successful when it comes to third-party funding. Funding authorities have been known to prefer and increase funding rates for cooperative projects. What’s more, approval rates are comparatively high (80% of submitted projects in some programmes), while processing and evaluation times are relatively short, with three to eight weeks from submission to funding decision.
On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, the SCF and WTZ hosted a workshop outlining these opportunities. Workshop notes can be downloaded here (German only):
- Tiroler Förderung (Dr. Rudolf Stoffner)
- Winner Consulting OG – Förderungen für Kooperationsprojekte mit Unternehmungen (Mag. Franz Winner, MBA)
- INTERREG Österreich – Bayern 2014-2020 (Mag.a Sigrid Hilger)
- CD-Labor (Prof. Dr. Gottfried Baier)
- Europäische Förderungen (Dr. Wolfram Rieneck)
Contact: Pamela Schech, Medical University of Innsbruck
WTZ Training Days: Intellectual property in Horizon 2020 projects
On February 22, 2017 the University of Salzburg hosted the WTZ Training Days, addressing the topic of “Intellectual property in Horizon 2020 projects”. The high number of participants, among them scientists, research service staff and potential applicants for H2020 projects, was proof of the increased interest in this topic.
Martin Baumgartner of the FFG outlined the dos and don’ts of Horizon 2020 project applications, while Jörg Scherer of the IPR Helpdesk talked about IP management in different project phases, explaining the most important regulations for dealing with intellectual property at project start and giving practical tips on IP management in the implementation phase, including exploitation planning. Sabine Seidl of Ideas in Motion gave insights from the point of view of an evaluator and talked about exploitation opportunities for project results.
Contact: Mag. Alexandra Wagner, University of Salzburg
The new Clinical Trials Regulation and its implementation in Austrian clinical research
On January 17, 2017, the Koordinierungszentrum für Klinische Studien (KKS; “Coordination Centre for Clinical Studies”) of the Medical University of Innsbruck hosted an advanced training course on “Clinical Trial Regulation”, outlining all current changes and their implications on clinical research in Austria. The course was hosted by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gustav Fraedrich, Vice Rector for Clinical Affairs.
The EU-wide “Clinical Trial Regulation”, which will probably come into effect in 2018 regulates standardized procedures, with upcoming changes not only posing “big challenges” for universities, as Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gustav Fraedrich, Vice Rector for Clinical Studies, pointed out in his introduction. The afternoon gave an overview of the new regulations and resulting legal changes as well as future challenges for researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. About 100 researchers and staff members from the field of clinical research attended the lecture..
Contact: Pamela Schech, Medical University of Innsbruck
2016 CAST Technology Award
On November 14, 2016, the CAST Technology Award for the best business ideas was once again awarded to Tyrolean researchers. Participants were asked to submit ideas on the exploitation of scientific developments, inventions and research results from all technical as well as non-technical areas. In addition to prize money, winners received an analysis of the market potential of their submitted project as well as comprehensive CAST consultation services. After an exciting judging phase of all submitted business ideas, the six best entries were unveiled at the headquarters of Hypo Tirol Bank. First place went to Prof. Dr. Paul Debbage and Dr. Gudrun Thurner of the Medical University of Innsbruck for their innovative method for early diagnosis of bowel cancer.
Contact: Monique Sommer, CAST
Maybe Palermo wins Goldenen Dolphin in Cannes
“Maybe Palermo”, the joint 16-minute patent video project of the Linz University of Arts, LAS GAFAS films and the Johannes Kepler University Linz was awarded the Gold Dolphin for “Informational Films” in Cannes, proving once again that scientific communication is not boring at all. In an entertaining way, the video explains the invention of E100304, a cancer drug developed and patented by Ian Teasdale at the Institute of Polymere Chemistry of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Producer Luzy Kathamay accepted the award on behalf of all partners. You still haven’t seen “Maybe Palermo”? Go check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1NoyiKQG00
Contact: Mag. Michael Wirthig, University of Art and Design Linz
Science for Innovation: SPOC Laboratories
With the official opening of the SPOC laboratories on Campus Anif, Salzburg had an exciting start to the 2016/17 winter semester! In this highly innovative project, the University of Salzburg and Stratec Consumables GmbH are pooling their know-how to develop state-of-the-art biochips that can give significant impetus to the field of medical and biological diagnostics. So-called “labs on a chip” allow for an extremely fast analysis of organic matter such as blood or cells, making routine diagnostic tasks in health and research much easier. The small chip prototypes are produced by scientists of the University of Salzburg and brought to market maturity by the project’s industry partner. To mark this successful co-operation, the opening of SPOC laboratories was celebrated together with numerous guests on October 17, 2017. If you want to know more about biochips, you can find out about the “miniature laboratories” in the new “Science for Innovation” video that premiered at the lab opening: https://youtu.be/fJiwX4VW8Z8
Contact: Katrin Nagovnak MA, University of Salzburg
2016 Garden of Ideas
Between September 27 and 30, 2016, 30 students from all parts of Austria were invited to test their creative business ideas, ranging from insect bars to ecological online financing platforms at this year’s IDEENGARTEN (“Garden of Ideas”). Like in the previous edition of the event, studipreneurs were given the chance to set up their business in a playful atmosphere and get some valuable inside tips from renowned start-up experts. The event took place at Werkstätte Wattens, where 100 years ago Daniel Swarowski founded his successful business. In addition to team building and idea cooking activities, the participants had the chance to attend different workshops and take part in the big jury finals. The students’ ideas ranged from insect bars to the ecological online financing platform Ecoala, the GoFinder key batch, design assessment platform Eyecatcha and study and leisure portal Come2gether.
Contact: Mag. Birgit Wimmer-Wurm, JKU Linz
Knowledge Transfer between Students and Companies
To drive knowledge and technology transfer between students and companies at an early stage, the WTZ West team of the University of Salzburg established a teaching transfer model with three cooperative events for students and businesses based in Salzburg. While the companies benefitted from the students’ fresh input, the students were given the chance to put their knowledge into practice.
Launched as the “internship of a lifetime”, an exceptional internship programme was developed together with Biogena Naturprodukte GmbH & Co KG, putting the focus on students’ personal impressions of the company. The potential interns presented their individual concepts to the company in five-minute pitches. In a second internship programme, online agency LOOP granted students an exclusive look behind the scenes in an exciting practice workshop addressing topics such as “Social Media and Content Marketing”, ”Making Global Web Campaigns and Case Studies come to Life” or “Content Marketing and Case Studies”. In addition, students got to see how campaigns are rolled out in an interesting bar camp. As part of a third internship programme, the City of Salzburg invited students to an informative talk about the many trainee and job opportunities at their institution. The three internship programmes show how active knowledge transfer between companies and students creates win-win situations for all participants.
Contact: Dr. Martin Mader, University of Salzburg
Seminar Series „Industry Standards“
As a joint project of the Knowledge Transfer Centre West, the Medical University of Innsbruck, the Tyrolean start-up centre CAST, the Standortagentur Tirol and the European Regional Development Fund, the seminar series “Industry Standards“ got off to a successful start in 2016. The seminar series addresses different topics revolving around the technical and organizational aspects of knowledge and technology transfer as well as industrial quality management. The first event on “Good Laboratory Practice” took place at the Medical University of Innsbruck on May 28, 2016, while one month later, scientists from four life science start-ups talked about the challenges of business founding during their seminar called “From Idea to Realization”.
Downloads: Leitfaden Laborbuch (German) | Laboratory Journal Guide
Contact: Johannes Ghetta B.Sc., Medical University of Innsbruck
Patent Videos: „Rhinospider: Surgery in three Acts“
In their exciting patent video series, the Linz University of Arts explains highly complex patents in a simple and appealing way. After the first video of the series, “Maybe Palermo”, successfully premiered in 2015, 2016 saw the advent of “Rhinospider: Surgery in three Acts”. The video is named after the “Rhinospider” patent developed by inventors Wolfgang Freysinger and Florian Kral of the Medical University of Innsbruck. As a joint project of the Linz University of Arts and Las Gafas films, the patent’s content was explained in a thrilling short film shot with dancers of the Anton Bruckner Private University at Ars Electronica Deep Space. Check out the video here: www.rhinospider.wordpress.com
Kontakt: Mag. Michael Wirthig, University of Art and Design Linz
WTZ Innovation Days
On sunny July 16, 2016, the WTZ Innovation Days on software and computer-implemented inventions took place in Salzburg with guest speakers Onur Emul of the IPR helpdesk, Dipl.-Ing. Georg Weber of the European Patent Office and Prof. Thomas Wilmer of the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. Interested visitors from all parts of Austria had the chance to attend interesting lectures on topics such as intellectual property and patent and contract law as well as dealing with open source software and freeware. As the closing lecture of the event, recently appointed professor of Economics at the University of Salzburg, Prof. Katja Hutter, gave a talk on market research in the digital age.
Contact: Katrin Nagovnak MA, University of Salzburg
The Power Plant – the Driving Force of Research
The Tabakfabrik Linz, the Linz University of Arts and the Johannes Kepler University recently joined forces to fire up the turbines of the Tabakfabrik power plant once again and turn it into a driving force for (interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary) research. Once fed by charcoal, later by oil and gas, the Tabakfabrik’s power plant will now be driven by the spirit of innovation to generate intellectual energy for our society. In line with its original purpose, the power plant will be turned into a driving force of scientific projects that enable and support creativity, experiments and exchange between universities, disciplines and fields of application.
Contact: Mag. Kathrin Anzinger, Linz University of Arts
Innovation Through Cooperation
At the 2016 Lange Nacht der Forschung (“Long Night of Research”), the WTZ West first presented the brand-new image video “Innovation through cooperation”, which shows how university and industry can work together in a highly successful way. The film portrays the Salzburg University’s Christian Doppler laboratory for biosimilar characterization, which joined forces with international companies to develop affordable drugs against severe illnesses such as cancer or diabetes. You don’t know what “biosimilars” are? Then it’s about time you found out about this exciting topic here: https://youtu.be/apuoTAjiY4c
Contact: Mag. Susanne Holzer, University of Salzburg
Skinnovation 2016
The “Skinnovation” project of the University of Innsbruck takes entrepreneurship to a whole new level – up in the mountains! From March 4-6, 2016, more than 200 young founders from all over Europe headed to the mountains of Innsbruck to spend a few exciting days of networking and exchanging ideas – and of course plenty of skiing! During Europe’s first ski event for entrepreneurs and start-ups, participants and mentors worked together on trend-setting business ideas, had the chance to listen to interesting lectures by successful companies and meet potential investors. With this exceptional event, the University of Innsbruck not only set new standards for networking and corporate development, but also showed what innovative knowledge transfer looks like today!
Find out more at: http://skinnovation.io/
Contact: Kathrin Treutinger Msc., University of Innsbruck
Startup-Synergy with Tech2b
The JKU Linz seized the 2016 winter semester for an exciting collaboration with the Tech2b start-up incubator. Four teams of students put their thinking caps on, working on solutions for young Upper Austrian companies View, SnailEx and QGo, the results of which were presented to their partners at the end of the semester. The extremely varied topics ranged from emergency call systems to snail traps and queue optimization at ski lifts, presenting students with an exciting opportunity to get a taste of business life and do some networking.
Contact: Mag. Birgit Wimmer-Wurm, JKU Linz
Stupid Hackathon
“So you want to take part in a hackathon and create the next facebook, post delivery drone, iPhone, instagram, or a really super cool and awesome calendar app? Then go look somewhere else!“ According to this motto, the teams at Tyrol’s first Stupid Hackathon for once didn’t try to find the most successful ideas, but instead tried to come up with the craziest ones. With diverse backgrounds ranging from informatics to economy, architecture and craft, the participants had 24 hours to come up with the most pointless software and hardware ideas. The idea behind this project: forget about the purpose and be creative! At the end, the results were assessed by a jury on their uselessness and pointlessness. The organizational team of Matthias Farwick (Institute of Informatics) and Kathrin Treutinger (Institute of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism) was thrilled by the many useless ideas and is already planning the second edition of “Stupid Hackathon – Tyrol Edition“! Stay tuned on stupidhackathon.at!
Contact: Kathrin Treutinger Msc., University Innsbruck
Course on Intellectual Property & IT
To advance and solidify the project participants‘ skills in the field of knowledge and technology transfer, the Management Center Innsbruck started a special course for members of the WTZ in spring 2016. Renowned lecturers from the business world shared their knowledge on topics such as intellectual property and IT, assessment and exploitation, legal framework for hardware and software and IP strategies for universities and industry. Another aim of the project was to advance existing networks and open up new perspectives of knowledge transfer. The courses took place in four parts throughout the year, offering participants German and English content also in interesting e-learning modules.
Contact: Florian Hupfauf, MA, Management Center Innsbruck
I³.cubature for ideas|inventions|innovation
In order to support joint projects of researchers, artists of different disciplines and experts from the business world, the Linz University of Arts is working on the I³. cubature for ideas|inventions|innovation. The project is focused on providing ideal conditions for interdisciplinary as well as transdisciplinary research and deals with questions such as the perfect room setting to support interaction and knowledge exchange between different disciplines and fields of application. The workshop “Place-Creation for Enabling Innovation” that took place in May 2015 at the Tabakfabrik Linz also addressed this question, bringing together PhD students, researchers and artists of the Linz University of Arts and Johannes Kepler University Linz to find solutions. The workshop participants tried to find out in what ways different room conditions affected them and came up with ideas for room concepts that were later visualized as prototypes. The results of the workshop are used as a basis for the development of the final room concept.
Contact: Dr. Andre Zogholy, Mag. Kathrin Anzinger, University of Art and Design Linz
Patent Videos
In their „Patent video“ project, the Linz University of Arts aims to make scientific university patents tangible for the general public. Together with different artists, the highly complex patents are explained in interesting videos, bringing together science and art in a unique way that sets new standards in international science communication. The video series started off with patent “E100304 Polyphosphazenes” of the Institute of Polymere Chemistry of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Over the course of several months, the Linz University of Arts worked together with the patent inventors and LAS GAFAS films to draw up a concept for the patent video “MAYBE PALERMO or what E100304 is all about”. Check out the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1NoyiKQG00.
Background information on the project: https://maybepalermo.wordpress.com/
Contact: Dr. Andre Zogholy, Mag. Michael Wirthig, University of Art and Design Linz
Lecture: „Academic collaborations to advance early stage drug discovery”
Together with the AWS, the Medical University of Innsbruck and the business foundation centre CAST, the University of Innsbruck organized an interesting event on “Academic collaborations to advance early stage drug discovery” with key speaker Dr. Steven Suchting, Business Development Manager at MRC Technology. This successful non-profit organization founded by the British Medical Research Council aims to bridge the gap between basic research and commercial exploitation in the field of bioscientific and medical research. Suchting’s lecture on “Academic collaborations to advance early stage drug discovery” showed researchers of the Innsbruck universities interesting ways of developing and exploiting their research results in the field of active ingredient research, new therapeutic targets and low-molecular compounds.
Contact: Dr. Sabine Wögrath, University of Innsbruck
Careers in Industry
Together with the Cluster Life Sciences Tirol, the Medical University of Innsbruck organised a WTZ West event for students and companies. Titled “Careers in Industry”, the event invited representatives of medium-sized and big enterprises such as Sandoz as well as up-and-coming start-ups to present career opportunities for graduates at their companies. About 100 students seized the chance to do some networking and find out about typical job profiles at the region’s best pharmaceutical, biotechnological and medical companies. However, it wasn’t just the students who benefited from exclusive insights into the region’s exciting career opportunities. It was also a very valuable day of networking for the companies, as it is often difficult for smaller-sized companies to find qualified employees. “Careers in Industry” managed to bridge the gap between students and companies and surely paved the way for some exciting future collaborations!
Contact: Dr. Peter Josten, Medical University of Innsbruck
2015 Garden of Ideas
30 students, 4 university locations, 5 boot camp days – these were the ingredients for the 2015 IDEENGARTEN (“Garden of Ideas”), Austria’s biggest playground for studipreneurs, which took place at the Tabakfabrik Linz from September 23-27, 2015. Participating students came from diverse backgrounds, ranging from Geology to Experimental Design. The camp’s mission: building a start-up from scratch – involving everything from ideation to brand development and the perfect pitch. During intense workshops, the studipreneurs developed their own ideas, ranging from an airbnb for event locations to individual travel kits. The final pitches were presented to a renowned jury featuring Gabriel Freinbichler (wasserkarte.info, step >one), Jakob Schröger (QGo, University of Innsbruck), Sara Matt-Leubner (University of Innsbruck), Christine Blanka, (inits Wien) and Eva Maurina, who were thrilled by the quality of the pitches as well as the interesting output of the teams.
For more photos and impressions visit: https://www.facebook.com/wissenstransfer?fref=ts
Contact: Mag. Birgit Wimmer-Wurm, University of Linz
Modular Teaching Transfer Model
In order to further professionalize the topic of knowledge and technology transfer, the Johannes Kepler University Linz developed a modular teaching transfer model supporting students with an economic or technical background as well as members of transfer institutions in the invention process. While the first “Invention workshop” module focuses on technical inventions and their core functionalities, the “Innovation idea workshop” module deals with ideation for as many fields of application as possible. Module 3 is called “Business Modeling” and tackles actual industry tasks and fields of application. For this module, the university already works together with industry partners such as Tech2b or Akostart. Module 4 focuses on professional training for presentations, pitches and simulating investor situations. The four modules build on one another, but can also be taken separately and adapted to special requests.
Contact: Mag. Birgit Wimmer-Wurm, University of Linz
MUI Research Report
To present their successful research projects to the public in a concise and appealing way, the Medical University of Innsbruck compiled a comprehensive research report in English. The report doesn’t only present impressive research successes from different fields, but also perfectly reflects the university’s scientific core areas of oncology, neurosciences and infection, immunity and transplantation. At the interface of the three core areas, the MUI also has a special research department for genetics-epigenetics-genomics.
The report contains profiles and research results of the MUI’s 68 research institutions (sections and institutes of the medical-theoretical area as well as university hospitals), presenting the scientist’s best inventions and successes. In addition, the report gives an overview of the three FWF doctoral schools, the FWF special research area SFB-F44 “Cell signaling in chronic CNS disorders” and the MUI’s core facilities. To browse through the research report, visit: https://www.i-med.ac.at/forschung/files/Research-Report-2015-MUI.pdf
Contact: Mag. Maria Magdalena Mair, Medical University of Innsbruck
Spatial Services GmbH
Supported by the WTZ West, 2015 saw the roll-out of the University of Salzburg’s first spin-off: Spatial Services GmbH. Together with seven researchers of the Interfaculty Department for Geoinformatics, the university set new standards of knowledge transfer with this project, making the innovative results of applied research accessible for industry. The Department of Geoinformatics has been researching spatiotemporal issues since 1988, dealing with topics such as the application of satellite pictures or disaster management. These areas of research often involve socio-economic questions such as climate change’s effects on certain regions’ vulnerability for natural dangers or infectious diseases. Taking this knowledge, Spatial Services GmbH now offers their geoinformatics and consulting services in the field of climate, environment, energy and security matters to economy and society. Fields of application range from tourism to municipal administration, energy supply and traffic and city planning, with geodata forming the basis for an increasing number of trend-setting developments in many areas. To find out more about the first spin-off of the University of Salzburg, visit: www.spatial-services.com
Contact: Dr. Erika Hebenstreit, University of Salzburg
WTZ West Training Days
With almost tropical temperatures outside, the WTZ West Training Days were truly one of Salzburg’s “hottest” events in July 2015. The information event took place in the grand ensemble rooms of the Mozarteum Salzburg, offering project partners interesting lectures on knowledge transfer, with a special focus on inventions. While Peer Biskup of the Bayerische Patentallianz took listeners on an exciting journey from idea to invention, Daniela Fabits of AustriaTech gave an interesting talk on state aid law. In another informative lecture, Kerstin Fricke of TUM ForTe talked about service inventions and licencing, while the interesting event ended with the University of Salzburg’s WTZ team presenting their recommendations for action dealing with the question of “How to motivate researchers”.
Contact: DI (FH) Alexandra Böhm, University of Salzburg
