"We are establishing a public limited company under the name of TUDAG TU Dresden Aktiengesellschaft with its registered office in Dresden" - this was the first sentence in the founding protocol signed by the GFF Executive Board in 2000.

This model of entrepreneurship, which has now existed for a quarter of a century in the environment of the TUD Dresden University of Technology, brought together in a holding company and the Fördergesellschaft as the sole shareholder, cannot be appreciated without the people who have accompanied it over the years. Alfred Post, the Chancellor of the TU Dresden at the time, deserves special mention here. "Recognizing early on that a modern university needs degrees of freedom outside the state administration in private legal forms in order to be able to fully develop its activities in technology transfer, technical services, language training and continuing education, he was the key initiator of the founding of AWW, GWT, TUDIAS, TUDAG and DIU, which gave TUD Dresden a head start over other German universities," - said Professor Achim Mehlhorn in a contribution to the tribute to Alfred Post.

The holding company, founded in 2000, was initially set up by Professor Dr. Peter Offermann as spokesman of the board, who took on this role in addition to his actual work as a researcher and lecturer at TU Dresden. The companies under the umbrella of the holding company operate at the interface between science and industry with the aim of implementing innovations and expanding the transfer of knowledge from the university. Within a very short time of its foundation, TUDAG was able to significantly increase its overall performance and continued to develop. There were and still are a large number of companies that have their roots in the university's laboratories and were able to take their first steps towards the market thanks to TUDAG's support. Novaled, for example, comes to mind here.

However, the expansion of the non-profit sector in the education sector through the further development of the TUDIAS language school and the founding of Dresden International University - the further education university of TU Dresden - also contributed to the success of TUDAG, which was also oriented towards the respective needs of the university. This approach is exemplary of the consistently close and trusting cooperation between those responsible at the TUDAG Group and the incumbent university management. It was therefore only logical that TUDAG became an integral part of TU Dresden in 2019 as part of the renewal of its excellence status in order to make better use of synergies.

As a specialist in knowledge and technology transfer, TUDAG has been offering a wide range of fields of activity at various qualification levels for 25 years now. Under the keywords education - transfer - entrepreneurship, it spans a broad spectrum to enable innovation, promote potential and thus shape the future.

The fact that this path cannot be taken without corrections or adjustments has not only been made clear by the developments resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Generational change, demographic developments in the higher education landscape and the growing influence of AI-based technologies also represent social challenges that the Group has to face. TUDAG benefits from the possibilities offered by the structure of an AG with GFF as its sole shareholder, which also allows it to make adjustments promptly and adapt to changing circumstances. This adaptability is also reflected in the development of the companies under the umbrella of the holding company itself, which are characterized by their diversity.

GFF would like to thank all those responsible, as well as the numerous contributors in the committees, the cooperation partners, the founders and, last but not least, the employees in the holding company and the companies. Without the commitment and cooperation of all those involved, this positive development of TUDAG would not have been possible.

We would also like to express our thanks on behalf of all funded students and early-career researchers, the numerous funded groups and institutions of TU Dresden: thanks to the successful TUDAG model, the broad financial support of the university, its concerns and its associate members has been reliably secured for 25 years thanks to GFF. The group of companies forms a strong foundation for our support association. We wish them continued success and look forward to the next chapters of cooperation.