THE TUM ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM

The thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem at TUM is a dynamic hub that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, providing a rich landscape where students, researchers, and industry leaders collaborate, innovate, and cultivate breakthrough ideas. From pioneering research to dedicated entrepreneurial support programs, TUM's ecosystem provides a vibrant platform where ideas are transformed into impactful ventures that shape the future of innovation.

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Entrepreneurship education

At TUM School of Management we aim to empower entrepreneurial minds: We offer more than 100 theoretical and practical courses curated in cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, TUM Venture Labs and TUM Entrepreneurship - many of them are interdisciplinary and welcome students across disciplines. From lectures to hackathons to project studies, seminars, and prototyping challenges, we offer a variety of learning formats at all academic levels – from undergraduate to young professional.

 

Our goal? To develop responsible, globally-minded individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset, capable of solving challenges in an innovative and sustainable way. Our courses are seamlessly integrated into the program curriculum of management students and students from other schools as mandatory, elective, or plugin courses. Our dynamic teaching methods blend theory with the latest research, practical examples, interactive discussions, industry speakers, diverse group exercises, and real-world collaboration. Students benefit from our close relationships with industry leaders to ensure relevance and practical insights. Our collaborative, interdisciplinary approach is reshaping entrepreneurship education for tomorrow's leaders.

The Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) is a joint institution of LMU and TUM, affiliated with the Bavarian Elite Network. Since 1998, we have been bringing together diverse students, entrepreneurial thinking and cutting-edge research to address real-world challenges with digital solutions. This flexible supplementary program runs parallel to your studies, nurturing your entrepreneurial skills and shaping you into a responsible innovator. Engage in our “Trends Seminar”, “Managing Product Development”, and “Entrepreneurship Laboratory” formats while immersing yourself in our inspiring community. Learn more about application requirements.

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Entrepreneurship Research

Founded in 2012, the TUM Entrepreneurship Research Institute (ERI) is a pioneering institute at the forefront of entrepreneurship research in Europe. Our interdisciplinary approach encompasses the full spectrum of the entrepreneurial journey, from inception to growth, addressing all facets of entrepreneurship.

 

In addition, the ERI offers the majority of entrepreneurship courses at TUM, integrating our latest research findings into the curriculum. These courses allow students to benefit from our ongoing research and expertise by diving into the complexities and dynamics of entrepreneurship. Our relentless pursuit is focused on improving our understanding of both entrepreneurial individuals and organizations, providing a deeper insight into this vibrant field.

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TUM Startup consulting

You got an idea? Want to find out if it has potential? Need help writing a business plan? Looking for partners to help you launch your business? Or do you want to know about patents and licensing to protect your invention? TUM's start-up consultancy assists students, employees, scientists and alumni of the university on their way to founding innovative companies in all important phases - from idea and concept validation to market evaluation and creation of a business model to applying for funding. Get in touch to turn your ideas and research into a business. 

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Entrepreneurship events

Interested in learning more about how to start your entrepreneurial journey? Events in the TUM entrepreneurship ecosystem offer those interested in founding a company, start-ups, students & researchers, alumni and friends of TUM the ideal framework to inform, educate and inspire themselves around the topics of innovation and business creation and to exchange and network with like-minded people and experts.

 

Join our yearly Entrepreneurship Day and find out all about our entrepreneurship support and service at the startup fair. The highlight is the award-giving of the Presidential Entrepreneurship Award to the most successful high-tech startup.

If you already have your own business idea based on high technology, apply for TUM IdeAward, the yearly competition for TUM researchers and scientists, where you get the chance to win prize money totaling 37,500 euros.

UnternehmerTUM also organizes exciting events for your start-up endeavor such as the Entrepreneurs’ Night, the Ultimate Demo Day and HACK ‘N’ TALK.

The domain-specific events of the TUM Venture Labs offer inspiring opportunities to delve deeper into topics and network with experts.

Entrepreneurship incubator

In our Entrepreneurship Incubator, we provide over 100 working places and more than 25 offices for our startups. You and your teams sit next door with our startup consultants and the Entrepreneurship Research Institute to receive extensive mentoring and coaching by experts. Downstairs the teams can access the MakerSpace, a 1,500 square meter prototyping facility to develop their products.

Entrepreneurship at a global scale

To prepare you and your startup project for today’s global business environments, we offer access to different international entrepreneurship education formats. Our Entrepreneurship Exchange Program which contains a six-month internship exchange with the National University of Singapore not only provides you the opportunity to work in a local startup but also to collect credits at one of Asia’s leading universities. There is also the opportunity to complete the Entrepreneurship Exchange program in the vibrant city of Barcelona and receive credits at the ESADE Business School.

Furthermore, you can collect practical experiences in a startup abroad through the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program or the European Venture Program.

The TIE2 International Lab offered by UnternehmerTUM provides you the opportunity to work on entrepreneurial projects in international teams with students from Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of Asia’s top schools.

 

Entrepreneurship hubs

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UnternehmerTUM

Our affiliated institute UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TUM, offers founders and startups a complete service from the initial idea to IPO. A team of > 400 experienced entrepreneurs, scientists, managers and investors supports founders with the development of their products, services and business models. The experts accompany them actively with building up their companies, market entry and financing – also via their own venture capital fund.

In addition to providing a large range of entrepreneurship education courses to TUM students, UnternehmerTUM runs the accelerator program TechFounders and Europe´s largest publicly accessible high-tech workshop MakerSpace.

For industry partners, UnternehmerTUM is a unique platform for cooperation and the expansion of their innovative power and culture. FamilienUnternehmerTUM supports family businesses and German-speaking SMEs by providing access to the latest technologies and contact with renowned experts.

Munich Urban Colab

You find the Munich Urban Colab at Freddie-Mercury-Straße 5 in Munich's “Kreativquartier”. Here, UnternehmerTUM and the City of Munich join forces under one roof to facilitate new forms of collaboration between start-ups, established companies, science, talented individuals, creatives, and artists from various industries and disciplines as well as the city administration.

Just a short walk away are the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences, the University of Television and Film Munich, the Goethe Institute, Utopia, and Dok.fest Munich.

 

The connection with the creative scene opens up new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and is an excellent asset for the topic of Smart City solutions.

The initiatives and formats of UnternehmerTUM and the City of Munich relevant to Smart Cities - regarding mobility, construction, and sustainability - are located in the Colab. The unique aspect: we offer direct access to the city administration and companies on site.

TUM Venture Labs

The TUM Venture Labs are a network of Deep Tech & Life Science incubators to foster innovation in emerging fields. Whether you are a student, researcher or professional, an aspiring individual or already a team, the Venture Labs will support you on your way to turn your idea into a scalable business.

As a joint initiative of TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the 11 TUM Venture Labs combine deep domain expertise with entrepreneurial experience and a large ecosystem. They help you turn your deep-tech or life-science idea into entrepreneurial impact - across the entire early life cycle, from idea generation to seed funding to launch. Explore your core areas of interest and the opportunities that cross-functional support can bring to your start-up.

We help you bring your ideas to market

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset in students and researchers is a key element of TUM. Thinking outside the box, being creative and innovative, taking risks and learning from failure, and being proactive in tackling problems are important for any career in today's dynamic and technology-driven world.

We educate more than 5,000 students each year in entrepreneurship, often in interdisciplinary and international formats. We provide transformational skills to develop tomorrow's changemakers: if you have a business idea, pick up the phone and call one of our startup advisors for personalized feedback.

 

Entrepreneurship Ambassadors

All TUM schools appoint entrepreneurship ambassadors as communicative contacts for start-ups within their research areas. These ambassadors sensitize and motivate students and scientists for entrepreneurship, disseminate important start-up information within the schools, facilitate the recognition of marketable technologies, and guide potential founders to entrepreneurial opportunities within the university.