From entrepreneurship education to community building: How Goethe-Unibator and Futury will strengthen startups together in the future.
In October 2025, Goethe Unibator, the founders’ center of Goethe University, relocated to Bertramshof in Frankfurt’s Westend, where it is establishing itself as an innovation hub and the new centerpiece of the startup ecosystem in the Rhine-Main region. Thanks to close cooperation and proximity to the flagship project “Futury – The Future Factory,” Goethe University’s start-up support offerings can be seamlessly integrated, providing founders with direct access to the resources and networks of both Goethe Unibator and Futury.
New Formats: Teaching, Counselling, Coaching
A central goal of the collaboration between Goethe Unibator and Futury is to make entrepreneurship more visible and accessible to a broad target group within Goethe University. To achieve this, a series of new, strategically interconnected initiatives will be launched. Starting in the 2025/26 winter semester, a lecture series on the topic “Innovation, Technology Transfer & Entrepreneurship” will take place, aimed at raising awareness of entrepreneurial thinking among students from all disciplines. This course will be complemented by the Goethe Startup School, a one-week program organized by Goethe Unibator in October, featuring hands-on seminars led by experienced experts, covering everything from business ideas to startup concepts. Futury’s various digital offerings, such as the IP Toolbox, will make knowledge about patents and technology transfer easily accessible to those interested in starting their own ventures. Prof. Dr. Michael Huth, Vice President Quality Management, Infrastructure & Technology Transfer, explains: “We want to enable students and researchers from all disciplines to identify and actively leverage the opportunities of their own entrepreneurial projects at an early stage. Our carefully coordinated teaching formats not only provide knowledge but also foster an open, innovation-driven community where ideas can grow in an interdisciplinary environment.”
Community Building at Bertramshof
With Unibator’s relocation to the heart of the Future Factory, Unibator founding teams and startups can now seamlessly benefit from Futury’s offerings. Practical pilot projects with industry partners, targeted funding (e.g., through the DeepTech Company Builder), early-stage financing via the Futury Fund III, and access to investor and alumni networks make the path from foundation to scaling significantly easier. Futury also provides international perspectives: Programs for market access abroad, along with systematic networking activities and events, aim to expand the local venture capital infrastructure and connect to international financing ecosystems. The Unibator team actively facilitates connections to the content-related programs of Futury, including Product Schools and Co-Founder Matching, which effectively bring together talents, ideas, mentors, and industry partners. Unibator manager Felipe Macias is enthusiastic: “There are tremendous opportunities for all founders, teams, and startups at Goethe University: More specialized programs, personalized mentoring, industry interfaces – all combined with a vibrant community for exchange, inspiration, and sustainable success.”
Growing and Scaling – More Infrastructure and Opportunities for Startups
Starting this fall, a central startup campus for the Rhine-Main region will be established at Bertramshof, offering expanded services and resources alongside an attractive infrastructure that includes office spaces, a maker space, and co-working spaces for startups. As Goethe University’s startup center, Unibator will provide startup teams and entrepreneurs from Goethe University with over 500 m² of space to develop their business ideas with support and through exchange with the Unibator team, other startup teams, and the experts from the mentoring network. With over 2,000 m² of space, Futury will offer even more room for consultations, workshops, coaching sessions, open events, and thematic meeting points for dialogue and connections with startups from the Rhine-Main Universities and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, as well as with sponsors, industry partners, and investors. Additional strategic partners, including RMU gGmbH, the central office of the Rhine-Main Universities alliance (RMU), and a branch of the Hessian Ministry of Digital Affairs (House of Digital Transformation), are located in close proximity.
Dr. Kirstin Schilling, Managing Director of Goethe University’s technology transfer company, which oversees Unibator’s management, emphasizes: “The new location moves us a decisive step forward – talents meet experienced founders, industry partners, and investors. This means Goethe University is creating and fostering an environment where innovation can be purposefully scaled.”
Prof. Dr. Michael Huth highlights: “Bertramshof is becoming a new hub of the startup ecosystem in the Rhine-Main region. It brings together the expertise of the Rhine-Main Universities and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, the dynamism of startups, and the network of industry with a view to turning potential into reality and transforming regional strength into international impact.”
Goethe Unibator is the central hub for founding support at Goethe University. From the initial idea to validation and the first entrepreneurial steps, Unibator’s team supports students, researchers, and alumni through every phase: With initial consultations for those interested in founding, coaching and competitions for startup teams, an incubation program, and – starting in 2024 – an accelerator program, Unibator provides essential startup assistance and a solid foundation for successful ventures.
Contact: Felipe.Macias@innovectis.de
Futury – The Future Factory expands this support with a regional RMU perspective, bringing together the strengths of all four university locations (Goethe University Frankfurt, JGU Mainz, TU Darmstadt, and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management). As an industry-focused startup factory, Futury enables real economies of scale across the Rhine-Main region – ranging from the dissemination of shared methods and tools (Product Schools, Hackathons) to networking with industry and investors, all the way to accelerator and scale-up programs at an international level. The goal is to enable more than 1,000 new startups in the region by 2030, fully leveraging the innovative potential of science and business.
