On May 22, 2025, the Innovation Bar will finally take place again! Do you have exciting research results that would make the world out there more sustainable or solve a problem for many people? Have you ever thought about turning the results into a product and founding a company? But are you wondering how? Or are you already on the way to founding a company and need support?
Then the Innovation Bar is the right place for you! Together with our partners Baden Campus / arise Accelerator, Grünhof / Smart Green Accelerator, the start-up office of the University of Freiburg and Startinsland / FWTM, we will inform you about funding and consulting offers for prospective start-ups in the region around Freiburg and enable you to exchange ideas with like-minded people.
Frauke Lorenzen (University of Freiburg, Start-up Office) and Julia Bauer (Fraunhofer, AHEAD-Accelerator) will provide an overview and answer questions from those interested in founding a company. Of course, inspiring examples from the start-up world will also be on hand. This year we are looking forward to André Groß (Cytena), Pouya Rajaeipour (Phaseform) and Manuela Schön (HeartGate project), who will introduce themselves and talk about their experiences in an interview.
After the program, there will be an opportunity to exchange ideas, network and talk with founders and start-up consultants over snacks and drinks in a relaxed atmosphere.
When? May 22, 2025, 5 p.m.
Where? Fraunhofer IPM, Georges-Köhler-Allee 301, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
Registration until May 15, 2025 via this link, free participation
Program
Start
5 p.m.
Welcome
From research project to start-up
Impulse by André Gross (formerly Cytena)
Start-up Journey: Support on the way to founding a company
Funding and advisory services in Freiburg and the surrounding area, presented by Günther Kornacker (BadenCampus) and Johannes Mielitz (Grünhof)
Founding from science
Support programs for start-ups from the university or Fraunhofer with Frauke Lorenzen (University of Freiburg start-up office) and Julia Bauer (Fraunhofer AHEAD)
Three paths to a successful start-up
Interview with André Gross (former Cytena), Manuela Schön (HeartGate project) and Pouya Rajaeipour (Phaseform)
From 18:30 Networking over a snack
Start-up consultants, the office of the Sustainability Performance Center and representatives of the start-ups will be available to answer questions.
About the speakers and their start-ups
Andre Gross, formerly CYTENA
Together with two other founders, Andre Gross founded CYTENA in 2014, a company that emerged from a research project at the Faculty of Engineering in Fribourg. The company sells laboratory equipment for the safe development of disruptive forms of therapy such as gene and cell therapy. As a global market leader in a niche (“hidden champion”), CYTENA has proven that it is possible to successfully survive on the market with innovative solutions and at the same time create sustainable jobs in Germany. After handing over his company to a successor, Andre Gross now works as a start-up coach and early-stage investor, supporting young companies, especially those that want to make a contribution to strengthening Germany as a business location with innovative and disruptive solutions.
About CYTENA
CYTENA, based in Freiburg, is dedicated to providing the best life science technologies to researchers and laboratory technicians around the world. The company combines advanced automation, state-of-the-art software technology and the latest findings in molecular biology to develop systems that simplify complex laboratory workflows and make these processes more efficient and cost-effective.
CYTENA evolved from a research project at the University of Freiburg and was founded in 2014. After initial sales successes and support from venture capital, the company steadily moved from a start-up to a medium-sized company and now generates sales in the mid double-digit millions.
Manuela Schön, HeartGate
As a medical engineer, Manuela Schön heads the technical department of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bothe's Minimally Invasive Artificial Heart Implantation working group. Her focus is on the development of innovative solutions and the implementation of regulatory requirements for the heart project of the HeartGate research team.
About HeartGate
In cases of severe heart failure, medication is of limited help and there are too few donor organs for transplants. Heart pumps are an alternative, but their implantation is risky. The HeartGate project team wants to make implantation faster and safer. With HeartGate, it is developing an implantation set so that in future heart pumps can be implanted on a beating, blood-filled heart. Let it beat!
Pouya Rajaeipour, Phaseform
Pouya is co-founder and CTO of Phaseform, a high-tech spin-off of the Institute of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Fribourg. Pouya founded Phaseform together with a dedicated team to bring this technology from academic research to practical application.
About Phaseform
Phaseform is developing a new generation of adaptive optics solutions for life science applications. With the patented Deformable Phase Plate (DPP), the company offers a unique approach to wavefront control - compact, scalable and easy to integrate. Phaseform's solutions are used in a variety of advanced imaging systems in research facilities and industry, enabling new dimensions of image quality - from neuroscience and cancer research to diagnostics and ophthalmology.