Honouring successful spin-offs

Honouring successful spin-offs

Innovations secure our future. As novel products, services, and processes, they provide the foundation for the economic success of numerous companies and bring a wide range of benefits to people in all aspects of life. Time and again, such innovations also originate at one of the institutes of the Max Planck Society.

Every two years, the Stifterverband and the Max Planck Society recognize special achievements from the Max Planck Society in the field of entrepreneurship with the Max Planck-Startup Award of the Stifterverband. The prize is awarded to successful startups of the Max Planck Society that have a particularly positive impact on society.

The Max Planck Society is increasingly promoting spin-off activities with various support measures. The Max Planck-Startup Prize of the Stifterverband is one component of this initiative to strengthen the startup culture at the Max Planck Institutes and is intended to encourage researchers to perceive and actively pursue the topic of start-ups as a career option.

Jury members

  • Prof. Dr. Claudia Felser, Vice-President of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (chair)
  • Andrea Frank, Deputy Secretary General of the Stifterverband
  • Dr. Bernd Goergen, Partner High-Tech Gründerfonds
  • Prof. Dr. Dietmar Harhoff, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
  • Dr. Christoph Hüls, Managing Director Max Planck Innovation
  • Dr. Marion Jung
  • Ulrich Mahr, Head of Start-up & Portfolio Management, Authorized Representative Max Planck Innovation

Winning Teams

A group of nine individuals is assembled in an expansive industrial space, characterized by high ceilings and tall arched windows, with some seated and others standing around a green scaffold.
The Stifterverband recognizes the start-up for its technology that enhances the power and cost-effectiveness of batteries more
The founding team of Meshcapade
Meshcapade, a start-up from Cyber Valley is planning nothing less than a minor revolution: their SMPL technology makes it possible to automatically create accurate and realistic humans in an easily accessible 3D format using a wide variety of data sources, such as images, sensor-based devices and body measurements. more
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