Innovative
together
for Europe

As a strong business location, we are particularly dependent on economically successful innovations to meet current and future challenges. Especially in times of profound structural change, it is crucial that innovations are not only developed, but also successfully put into practice.

For 35 years, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been doing outstanding work in promoting innovation, knowledge transfer and international networking in Baden-Württemberg and beyond. As an interface between science, business and politics, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum plays a key role in ensuring that our companies, universities and research institutions benefit from the opportunities offered by European funding and cooperation.

With excellent advice and strategic foresight, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum helps companies and research institutions to access European funding programs, build collaborations and drive sustainable innovation.

Baden-Württemberg stands for innovation, economic strength and a close collaboration between science and business. Together with the former and current Commissioner for Europe of the Minister of Economic Affairs, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has consolidated these strengths and built bridges across national borders. Thanks to this support, numerous projects have been implemented in areas such as digitalization, sustainable mobility, energy transition, bio-based circular economy and artificial intelligence.

International competitiveness is a decisive factor for economic success. What is more relevant today than ever played a central role in Baden-Württemberg's economic policy back in 1990: the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Hermann Schaufler, appointed Prof. Dr. Hans J. Tümmers as his first Commissioner for Europe, who at the same time took over the management of the newly founded Steinbeis Transfer Center for European Technology Transfer - the birth of today's Steinbeis Europa Zentrum under the umbrella of the Steinbeis Foundation. This was the beginning of an extraordinary success story. In 2025, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, a group of companies comprising Steinbeis 2i GmbH, Steinbeis IDEA Europe and Steinbeis EU for YOU, can look back on 35 years as an enabler - in the spirit of our namesake Ferdinand von Steinbeis. Every day, around 100 employees bring Europe to life for people in companies, research institutions and intermediaries with great commitment and passion. Their guiding principle to this day is to actively and concretely help shape Europe and connect Baden-Württemberg companies in research, development and innovation. This creates links between business, science and politics and strengthens Baden-Württemberg as a location for innovation.

The continuity in objectives is also reflected in the management of Steinbeis Europa Zentrum. After the successful development years of the Commissioner for Europe Hans J. Tümmers and his successor Prof. Dr. Peter S. Nieß, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Norbert Höptner took over the management in 2002. During his tenure, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum became a partner in the Enterprise Europe Network of the European Commission and received the Steinbeis Foundation's Transfer Award – the Löhn Award for outstanding technology transfer projects in 2013. The increasingly extensive activities are finally reflected in the founding of Steinbeis 2i GmbH in 2016. Today, the group of companies is managed by Prof. h. c. Dr. Jonathan Loeffler and Dr.-Ing. Petra Püchner as Commissioner for Europe of the Minister of Economic Affairs of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been a trusted partner in the Enterprise Europe Network since its creation in 2008. With its long experience in fostering innovation and regional cooperation, you have been a key player in shaping SME support not only in Baden-Württemberg but also at EU level. This European Commission sees innovation and industrial policy going hand in hand to ensure economic prosperity, sustainable competitiveness and security. Actors like Steinbeis Europa Zentrum will be key partners in the next years to make this a reality.

Thank you very much!

This year we celebrate 35 years of successful European cooperation in research and innovation. A big thank you to everyone who has walked this path with us. Thank you for the good cooperation, thank you for the many joint projects and activities. And thank you for the trust you have placed in our staff.

We want to give something back to you - which is why we are inviting you to various events in the second half of 2025.

Follow us via LinkedIn and visit our website!

Website: Innovation Funding | Steinbeis Europa Zentrum - Steinbeis EN

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum | LinkedIn

Europe is facing new challenges considering the global political situation. This also forces us to be innovative and adaptive:

Enhancing competitiveness is the top priority for Steinbeis Europa Zentrum to ensure innovations are successfully implemented in Europe!

The competitiveness of companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the quality of research in universities and research institutions are of great importance to Europe's future. Its preservation and further promotion in the future is an important task for the entire European Union. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum remains firmly dedicated to driving this mission forward.

Why is this so important?

On the one hand, SMEs form the foundation of Europe’s economy. European SMEs employ about 2/3 of the workforce, which means that 90 million people contribute more than 53% of European added value¹. While large companies are increasingly investing outside Europe, SMEs continue to invest in Germany and Europe.

On the other hand, Europe's research institutions and universities are among the world's best, with a wealth of knowledge to help companies innovate and grow.

The idea of technology transfer, which Steinbeis launched many years ago together with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism is as important today as it was then. The competitiveness of companies is achieved primarily through innovation.

Innovation is the result of pioneering spirit and collaboration between all players in innovation ecosystems.

It is important that we involve civil society alongside researchers, entrepreneurs and the public sector. All innovation actors, including start-ups and scale-ups, contribute to our way of living together in the future. Civil society plays an increasingly vital role when it comes to social acceptance and day-to-day implementation of new technologies and solutions. Innovation and new technologies concern us all, as they directly affect all of our lives.

This will secure jobs for future generations and maintain living standards. It is important not only at an economic level, but also at societal level to ensure cohesion and shared values in Europe.

New impulses and innovation partnerships are therefore needed!

[1] Annual Report on European SMEs 20223/2024

Since 1990, the mission of Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been to support innovation actors - companies, (applied) research institutions and public authorities - in this process and to facilitate cooperation at the European level. Recently, we have also started cooperating with partners in Africa and Asia. We support them individually in the context of R&I projects with services ranging from jointly validating an initial idea for a new product to the financing and management of innovative collaborative projects on an international level and the preparation of the market launch.

We can look back with pride on the past few years, during which we have:

• Advised over 12.000 people from over 7.000 organisations
• Submitted more than 1000 applications to the EU for us and our partners
• Acquired more than 200 projects

Innovations are driven by people who work at the interface between different scientific disciplines and areas of technology. We can call these people “pioneers” in their field.

In the coming years, we want to continue to focus on supporting individuals and companies that are doing pioneering work in their respective field. These can be start-ups, but also established companies that want to grow through innovation. They can also be researchers who want to apply their scientific findings to the benefit of society. Public sector players in cluster organizations, municipalities or ministries can also do pioneering work. Europe urgently needs them: innovative companies and organizations that are willing to try something new - now more than ever.

The development of innovative products and services is associated with risks. This is exactly where we come in: We help to minimise risks and turn ideas into reality. Hence, we contribute our knowledge, our networks and our experience – and support our customers in finding the right funding programs, submitting successful applications and implementing their innovation projects sustainably.

We enable individual companies to receive EU funding of up to 2.5 million euros - to close the gap between research and market launch. And we are giving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to become part of European collaborative projects. This presupposes that they already have contact with partners in Europe or are willing to establish them. We have the important networks to build partnerships.

With participation in over 200 research and innovation projects with more than 800 foreign partners and over 80 ongoing projects per year, we are the number one medium-sized company in Germany.

Our heart beats for strategic partnerships in the field of innovation.

With our many years of experience, we support our clients in establishing international collaborations - with companies, research institutes and public institutions. In the Enterprise Europe Network, we open doors to the world's largest network for technology transfer. Doing so, we create the conditions for innovations to reach market maturity more quickly - and for our partners to strengthen their competitiveness in the long term.

Let us forge many more innovative projects together with pioneering companies and organizations for the next 35 years!

We continued to be committed to this mission statement in 2024 and implemented it through the following services for our clients:

7 projects are funded by INTERREG programmes. 5 projects received regional funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg. 2 projects received national funding.

Since 1990, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been supported innovation actors - companies, applied research institutions and public authorities - in research funding, proposal writing, project management innovation and international partnerships.

With more than 150 project participations in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe we are the Number One company for EU projects in Germany (as of 11/2024).

In the REHOUSE project, experts from the EU and Switzerland are working together to make building renovations faster, more efficient, and more comfortable. Eight innovative renovation packages - currently technology readiness level (TRL) 6 - are being developed and demonstrated at four sites in Italy, Hungary, France and Greece. The partners are focussing on the use of eco-friendly, recyclable materials to enable a circular economy in the construction industry. By using prefabrication techniques and simplified installation, they aim to reduce renovation costs and time and make sustainable renovations easier and more affordable.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has accompanied the consortium of 25 partners from the very beginning and supported them in defining the project results in terms of their exploitation and property rights. It coordinates stakeholder mapping, IP management, standardisation of renovation packages and dissemination and communication activities.

Together with our partners, we have identified five customer profiles: Homeowners, commercial building owners, Real ESTATE developers, public sector organisations and property management companies. In November 2024, we examined with the consortium how the renovation packages can be tailored to the needs of the identified customer groups. This has provided us with a good basis for refining the REHOUSE solutions and effectively addressing the challenges associated with deep building refurbishments.

The secure, human-centered industrial application of artificial intelligence in robotic systems is at the core of the EU project EARASHI – Embodied AI/Robotics Applications for a Safe, Human-oriented Industry. Together with its project partners, the initiative aims to improve working conditions in production environments and build trust in technology. In collaboration with Mondragon University in the Basque Country, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is developing a methodology to evaluate employee acceptance of the innovations created during the project.

Through a cascade funding mechanism, SMEs and start-ups were invited to apply with application projects during two rounds of calls for proposals. As a result, 10 companies received funding of up to €200,000 each.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has successfully supported Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung (DITF) in the proposal process of BioFibreLoop. The innovation project with 13 partners from 9 countries has received €6.5 million for three and a half years from the EU in the Horizon Europe programme. The focus is on the development of recyclable outdoor-, active- and workwear made from renewable bio-based materials with biomimetic functionalities. This will pave the way for a circular and sustainable textile industry.

BioFibreLoop will revolutionise the functionalisation of textiles with non-hazardous chemicals by reducing the use of hazardous chemicals by 100% while still meeting consumer needs for smart functionalities. The project will deliver affordable, resource and environmentally friendly, yet high-performance and durable textiles made of renewable sources like lignin, cellulose and polylactic acid for end markets.

Food systems are extremely complex; to transform them, you need to look at them globally and involve different actors such as private companies, policy makers, civil society, academia and many more. This is where cities become powerful actors and can make a difference.

For the past four years, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and 33 other project partners involved in the EU project FUSILLI have been working intensively on this issue and have implemented 324 measures in so-called Living Labs in 12 European cities. All stages of the food chain were involved: from production, processing, distribution and logistics to consumption, waste management and local food policy.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum was the project's communication partner and has summarised the project results in the brochure 'Lessons Learned Cookbook Recipes for Transforming Urban Food Systems: Best Practices from FUSILLI's Living Labs in Action'. From improving local food production and reducing waste to improving food safety and promoting healthy eating, the experience gained has inspired new strategies for sustainable urban living and increased understanding. The 'lessons learned' and other project successes were presented and discussed at the final conference in Nilüfer (Bursa), Turkey, on 19-20 November. The conference was organised and carried out by our event team.

Together with Nordseeheilbad GmbH Borkum, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has supported the establishment of an energy community on Borkum as part of the ISLANDER project. In a series of information workshops we supported the citizens in developing a first pilot project and planning how they can play an active part in the energy transition and take local energy production directly into their own hands. The cooperative named ‘Energiewelle Borkum eG’ was founded on 8 March 2025 in Borkum.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum worked with the citizens to develop a comprehensive business plan with detailed investment, financing and liquidity plans and submitted it to the cooperative association for review. In addition, it supports the drafting of articles of association as an essential part of the foundation phase.  As its first pilot project, the energy community decided to install photovoltaic systems on the roofs of the Borkum sewage treatment plant. The electricity produced is sold to the town of Borkum at a fair price and consumed directly on site.

As coordinator of the main support action of the Danube Lighthouse, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum promotes cooperation between stakeholders, disseminates innovative solutions and strengthens regional governance structures through the EcoDaLLi project. In addition, we also coordinate the working group ‘Innovation and Technology Transfer’ of Priority Area 8 of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

In 2024, we brought these target groups together in four different events, including the conference ‘The Danube Region at the Turn of Times - Economic Cooperation and Hydrogen Supply Chains along the Danube’ in Ulm in July. In this framework, we organised a two-day workshop reaching 50 stakeholders from business, academia and governance. We jointly developed a vision and strategy for promoting innovation and the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Danube region. Our activities resulted in a roadmap as a strategic guideline for sustainable and competitive development.

Through the EcoDaLLi portal, a central platform for knowledge transfer of best practices and project results has been created. This includes, for example, a catalogue for nature-based solutions (NBS) and business innovations with filter options, an interactive NBS flow chart for evaluating and implementing NBS in the Danube catchment area and a stakeholder map to identify key players in the Danube region and establish new contacts.

The Open Innovation Congress Baden-Württemberg 2024 “EXPLORE AND EXPAND YOUR POTENTIAL”, organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism Baden-Württemberg and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, took place on 8 April in Stuttgart at the Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg.

Participants were welcomed with an opening speech by Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut and then had the opportunity to listen to presentations by various keynote speakers and panel discussions. Participants were also able to access additional information about the event using an event app.

Our event team was responsible for concept development, speaker and participant management, technical conception, implementation and support of the live streaming and all programme items, event organisation, stage branding and communication management.