Autor: Annette Henn

In order to exploit the full potential of the circular economy, companies need to develop holistic solutions and rethink their business models. With this in mind, a summer school entitled Circular Economy was organized by Merseburg University's start-up service in September 2023 with the aim of developing innovative ideas for new business models with a focus on circular models. Current trends in materials science were used as conceivable scenarios for circular forms of economic activity in the idea generation process. Entrepreneurship is an interface function here. Entrepreneurs not only want to run companies, they also want to bring about change with new products, services and business processes.

Despite the fact that SME innovation is critical to a country’s economic success, SMEs spend less than 50 % of their budget on R&D when compared to large companies. “Open innovation”is seen as helping SMEs to improve their competitive position. For regions dominated by SMEs it is important to develop an ecosystem that supports open innovation processes. Universities can be key enablers within these ecosystems. They support SMEs with their expertise in science and engineering as well as in innovation and project management. In this article we present a case study to demonstrate the role of a university of applied sciences in an open innovation ecosystem.