On April 9, 2025, eight universities from Saxony and two from Thuringia officially founded the Startup Campus Alliance at Leipzig University. The goal of the association is to promote entrepreneurship, support start-up culture and establish Saxony and Thuringia as a leading deep-tech start-up region in Germany.

Deep Tech (short for deep technology) denotes technologies and companies that seek to provide solutions based on major scientific or technological innovations.

The founding members of the Startup Campus Alliance are:

• Leipzig University
• TUD Dresden University of Technology
• Chemnitz University of Technology
• TU Bergakademie Freiberg
• University of Applied Sciences Dresden
• Leipzig University of Applied Sciences
• Mittweida University of Applied Sciences
• HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
• Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• University of Applied Sciences Jena

The goal of the Startup Campus Alliance is to strategically bundle the strengths of universities in Saxony and Thuringia in start-up support, thereby creating effective synergies. Through joint teaching initiatives, shared infrastructure and interdisciplinary cooperation, talented individuals and teams interested in setting up a company will have access to innovative support services.

The alliance is committed to raising the profile of successful university spin-offs and to bolstering public awareness of Saxony and Thuringia as a prime location for start-ups – both nationally and internationally. “In addition, this cross-university collaboration represents a significant contribution to the development of our regional start-up ecosystem. After all, most of the ideas for start-ups now come from universities,” says Prof. Utz Dornberger from the Leipzig University, who was elected Chairperson of the association. In Saxony, there were almost 100 innovative start-ups in 2023, more than 60 of which were the result of initiatives from universities.

© Swen Reichhold / Leipzig University

“With the founding of the Startup Campus Alliance, we are creating another means of supporting an innovative and sustainable start-up ecosystem with foundations in a strong partnership between business, associations and universities,” says Prof. Ursula Staudinger, Rector of TUD. “This step is in keeping with the activities at our Excellence Center for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship TUD|EXCITE, which contributes to value creation through spin-offs as well as innovation and transfer projects. As the university with the most patents in Germany, TUD is proud to contribute its expertise to this alliance.”

© Swen Reichhold / Leipzig University

The collaboration is organized as a non-profit association and serves as a coordinating platform, through which the diverse activities of university start-up support can be efficiently bundled and strategically aligned.

In addition, the association structure enables a joint representation of interests in the Business Opportunities Ost (boOst) gGmbH, which is being established alongside the alliance. In addition to Sparkassen in Saxony, SpinLab in Leipzig and TUDAG, talks are currently being held with other private investors. This partnership is designed to support the founding of innovative startups from universities. 

The Excellence Center TUD|EXCITE, in its role as a TUD transfer center, is leading the establishment and founding of boOst gGmbH and the acquisition of further private partners.

boOst gGmbH is also competing in the Startup Factories competition organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which supports selected German startup ecosystems in setting up knowledge-based spin-offs. The aim is to develop a model for a thematically or regionally-oriented Startup Factory that operates as a private-law organization outside of the university framework.