From patent to startup: Apply for the EUTOPIA Innovation Challenge for Researchers - International TUD|excite Summer School 2026

Are you a PhD student, postdoc or researcher - and do you have a technology or patent that you seriously want to push towards a start-up?

Or do you want to found a company and are looking for a strong technology-driven idea that you can work on with others in an interdisciplinary team?

The International TUD|excite Summer School "Patents in Search of New Business" brings together early-career researchers from all over Europe to develop innovative business models and deep-tech start-ups from university patents.

From August 24-28, 2026, Master's graduates, doctoral students and postdocs will work in international and interdisciplinary teams together with inventors, entrepreneurs and experts from the TU Dresden network & other universities from the EUTOPIA network as well as the DRESDENconcept partners.

Participants gain access to selected patents, develop product ideas and business models from them and present them to an external jury at the end of the week.

Key topics include

• Environmental protection
• Medical technology/pharmacy/biotechnology
• Materials science
• Agriculture/agriculture/natural materials
• Electronics / energy technology
• Sensor technology
• Photophysics

The Summer School is part of the patent incubation program Zuse Innovators Program (Z-IP) and also offers

✔ The opportunity to gain intensive start-up experience in a short period of time
✔ Methods for developing use cases and business models
✔ Direct exchange with inventors, start-ups & experts
✔ New perspectives on career paths in startups, transfer & innovation

Important information:

📍 Location: Saxony/Lausitz
📅 Date: August 24-28, 2026
💰 Program: free of charge
📌 Application deadline: May 20, 2026

👉 Apply here now and become part of our program!