Annual Report
2021

An eventful 2021 lies behind us. In the second year of the pandemic, we were again able to further develop important innovation projects with our customers. The focus was on solutions for a sustainable and climate-neutral future, with a view to sustainability, digitalisation and regional and social transformation. With numerous examples to choose from, you can read a selection of the success stories of our customers and project activities that we would like to share with you in this report. Let these stories inspire you!

As you may have noticed, in 2021 we realigned our corporate identity with fresh new colours under the umbrella brand ‘Steinbeis Europa Zentrum’ and restructured our portfolio with a fresh range of topics. With the newly designed website and our monthly newsletter, we offer you insights into current activities, exciting technologies, projects, funding schemes and success stories.

For us, it is a priority to accompany each of our customers and partners for the long term and to enable you to progress in your sustainable and innovative development. Our slogan ‘Enabling Innovators to Grow’ is an expression of our strong commitment to respond to your innovation needs and offer personalised support on an international level.

With the new premises our Stuttgart colleagues moved into in December 2021 in the west of the city, we are even better equipped and ready to welcome you and assist you with our expertise.

We would like to sincerely thank all our partners for the good cooperation, the joint development and implementation of new ideas as well as the interesting projects and topics that we were able to design and implement successfully together with you. Let's continue to work together to strengthen and advance European cooperation. We look forward to your ideas.

We continued to be committed to this mission statement in 2021 and implemented it through the following services for our clients:

Since 2010, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been highly committed to supporting Prof. Carlo Burkhardt, who now heads the Institute for Precious and Technology Metals at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences. What began with EU research projects has led to the establishment of a Europe-wide value chain for a circular economy of permanent magnets based on rare earths; an area that is of great importance for our industry and everyday life - from consumer electronics to medical technology, mobility, sensor technology and renewable energies. The example of this Client Journey shows how effective and successful years of mentoring can be with the help of EU networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network, as well as with access to EU funding and to the European institutions.

So far, more than 100 cities have received funding from the European Commission to test new forms of cooperation and become innovation centres in their own right. This way, they act as role models for sustainable urban development.

In this respect, it is not enough to simply renovate individual buildings. A new approach includes the creation of a network between entire building complexes, so-called Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). PEDs are CO₂-neutral city districts, which produce more energy than they use. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is a partner in the EU-funded Smart Cities project ATELIER, in which PEDs are being created in the cities of Amsterdam and Bilbao. Over 30 partners from 11 countries are working together on innovative and replicable solutions. These involve a more efficient energy use, local energy generation, e.g., through geothermal or photovoltaic plants, a flexible system of energy use and storage, e-mobility concepts and a smart integration into the surrounding energy infrastructure.

The optimization of fuel cell technology, with a focus on the peripheral components of the fuel cell, the so-called "Balance of Plant" components, was the subject of the EU project INN-BALANCE. For this purpose, new concepts were developed, e.g., for the supply of hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell, for thermal management and function monitoring of the entire fuel cell system. After completion of a first prototype, the functionality and compatibility of the components at system level were successfully tested in a fuel cell test bench. The new developments were installed in a vehicle platform to evaluate the performance of the overall system.

Under the leadership of the University of Stuttgart and partnership of Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, a thermochemical process for the sustainable production of high-quality P₄ for the chemical industry using sewage sludge on a large scale, is being developed as part of the EU project FlashPhos. This is made possible by an economically and ecologically viable  and climate-friendly circular process which will be demonstrated in a pilot plant with up to 250 kg/h sewage sludge throughput. The first pilot plant is to be built in Europe by 2025. Together with an international consortium, production on an industrial scale is to begin in 2028.

Under the EU project DigiFed, 80 SMEs have benefited from individual grants, known as cascading funding, to develop innovative digital solutions in different application areas. The TWIN application experiments offer grants of 100,000 euros for co-created projects involving two SMEs.

With this funding, the Spanish start-up ENERGIOT has developed a battery-free IoT device that draws its energy from the magnetic field of power lines. In cooperation with a French software company, ENERGIOT is developing a low-cost wireless solution for the massive deployment of IoT to reduce maintenance and optimise the operation of power grids. The goal is to increase grid capacity by up to 30% and save up to 20% of maintenance costs. The future market is estimated at 7.9 billion euros.

Standardising the evaluation of biomaterials has been the main objective of the EU research project PANBioRA, administratively coordinated by Steinbeis Europa Zentrum. The project results make it possible to predict the patient-specific response to a given biomaterial. For the benefit of the patient, the clinician can assess the risks and select the best biomaterial and thus significantly mitigate and reduce possible post-implantation complications.

The instruments developed within the project have promising market opportunities, shown for example by the success of the spin-off Spartha Medical, which was founded as a result of PANBioRA’s predecessor project IMMODGEL. Thanks to PANBioRA, Spartha Medical received enormous momentum for growth. Among other initiatives, it applied for the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme and was awarded the EU grant of 2.4 million EUR at the end of 2021.

We can analyse your innovation potential and develop an innovation strategy specifically tailored to your needs. You will receive recommendations for action with regard to strategic partnerships, open innovation or growth financing. We actively support change management processes and always see opportunities in challenging times; opportunities for new products, processes and business models.

370 clients were advised on innovation financing. These included 205 companies (of which 178 were SMEs), 141 universities and research institutions (of which 91 were universities of applied sciences and cooperative universities) and 11 cluster initiatives.

Over 100 clients were advised on internationalisation and market access including 65 SMEs, 25 universities and research institutions and 3 cluster initiatives .

21 cooperation agreements were successfully concluded with research and innovation partners from abroad within the framework of the Enterprise Europe Network.

In the Finance4SocialChange project, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum developed the first 'Social Impact Investment Strategy for the Danube region'. This improved access for social enterprises to innovative financing instruments in the Danube region and built a supportive business environment. In addition, the project published 130 hours of educational material in the educational programme 'Accelerating Investment Readiness - #AirMOOC' , and organised the pitching and business plan competition '#AirCompetition' and related training programmes to empower social enterprises.

In 2021, the Commissioner for Europe and her team continued to work on setting the future course of the Vanguard Initiative with more than 35 regions in Europe. Among other things, a proposal was developed to give SMEs better access to the innovative technologies and applications from the initiative's pilot projects. The implementation will take place in 2022.

Through the Commissioner for Europe, Baden-Württemberg, raised the topic of hydrogen as the next important issue at informal and formal meetings of the regions. It became clear that this is an important future topic for many regions. At the Annual Political Meeting of the Vanguard Initiative in November 2021, the topic of hydrogen was chosen as the next pilot project. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum also prepared the ground for cooperation with the European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA) and the Made in Europe Partnership.

As the lead partner for communication and partner in the Clean Energy for EU Islands secretariat, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum hosted their forum virtually on 20-21 May 2021. The secretariat was established by the European Commission and the EU Parliament to facilitate the transition to clean energy on European islands.

Matchmaking (ACT), exhibition (EXPLORE), visit of demo sites (EXPLORE), working sessions (ACT), plenary sessions (SHAPE & EXPLORE) and project presentations (ACT), were on the agenda.

Three virtual trainings for a total of 20 participants from Baden-Württemberg were conducted in 2021. In the last four years, a total of 22 trainings for 100 participants were organised. In 2021, the trainings were completely rebuilt and adapted to be delivered online .

12 trainings for a total of 322 participants on funding applications, innovation management, internationalisation and social innovation, were conducted in the Danube region.

12 projects are funded by INTERREG programmes. 8 projects received regional funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg. 2 projects received national funding.