Creating Value with Business Incubation - New Business Models for STPs

Public research institutions such as universities are one of the most important sources of technological innovation. However, the players within these institutions rather tend to focus on further improvement of achieved innovations than on their transfer to market in a structured entrepreneurial process. Possessing the necessary infrastructure as well as a relevant network of established firms and entrepreneurs, STPs are perfectly suited to host a business incubator inside in order to close the gap between business and research. The combination of a leading technical university (RWTH Aachen University) and a cluster of leading tech companies including a community of successful entrepreneurs in one STP (TPH) provides an outstanding opportunity for building up a business incubator for technology-based start-up teams. The paper will describe the case of CO:FORWARD - Business Incubation as a value innovation for an STP as well as for the major stakeholders, the university, and the regional development.