Cutting-edge research meets businesses
The MPI, the German Association for medium-sized Businesses and the start-up initiative BrightSync are working together on new projects for innovation and knowledge transfer.
The Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung has become a new member of the BVMW, aiming to strengthen the bridge between cutting-edge research and small and medium-sized businesses. This is precisely where the start-up initiative BrightSync comes in, with the first joint projects now being prepared.
“The BVMW offers us a strong network of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is particularly valuable for our research-based spin-offs,” says Dr. Verena Schultz-Coulon, Administrative Director of the Institute. “At the same time, companies benefit from the ideas and impulses of our start-ups.” While the BVMW supports companies in key future fields such as innovation, digitalization, and internationalization, BrightSync connects researchers from the Max Planck Society with the business world.
BrightSync is building a community where companies gain access to scientific expertise, while young researchers, in turn, gain practical experience and new career perspectives. This way, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers can apply their knowledge in new contexts, gain industry experience, and explore possible career paths beyond academia. “Small and medium-sized businesses are a particularly interesting target group for us, and we are convinced that our scientific expertise can help many of them solve concrete problems. Through the BVMW, we will be able to organize many new and exciting projects for our researchers,” explains Dr. Tim Schulte, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute and founder of BrightSync.
Inventions and spin-offs have a long tradition at the Institute: From the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in 1925 to Karl Ziegler’s process for producing polyolefins to current start-up initiatives. Other recent start-ups alongside BrightSync focus on battery technology (Minerva Carbon) and more sustainable production of high-performance materials through mechanochemistry (MechSyn). The cooperation with the BVMW will further strengthen this long-standing tradition of entrepreneurship in the future.
