The European University Alliances EuroTeQ Engineering University and EUGLOH bring students and researchers together with companies – through competitions, conferences and a focus on practical solutions.

How can smallholders in Uganda get their fresh fruit and vegetables to market without them spoiling in transit at temperatures of 35 degrees in the shade? In 2025, an innovative solution devised by students at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) came first in the Europe-wide EuroTeQ Collider competition staged by the EuroTeQ Engineering University, a European University Alliance of eight leading universities of science and technology from industry-intensive regions. The winning team from Munich worked closely with the Ugandan NGO Tukule Foundation to develop the BioThermoBox – a mobile, long-lasting and locally produced cool box made of recycled banana fibres. 

One special feature of the EuroTeQ Collider competition is that participants collaborate not only with scientists but also with industrial partners, start-ups or NGOs. The aim is to jointly come up with viable solutions to socially relevant challenges. In 2025, the broad spectrum of topics at TUM alone ranged from mobility solutions for older people to a digital platform that supports small and medium-sized enterprises in becoming more sustainable. “The challenge-based learning format encourages entrepreneurial thinking,” says Angela Wester, who is responsible for the EuroTeQ Collider at the TUM. “The students receive valuable feedback from their corporate partners, which prepares them really well for the employment market.”

Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in Barcelona

The competition is held every year at all EuroTeQ universities. Up to 100 bachelor’s, master’s and PhD students in all subjects take part at the TUM – around 80 percent of them are international students. “The Collider gets students from all kinds of different backgrounds working together, giving them the chance to experience new perspectives. The most creative and innovative solutions are often the result of a diverse group’s brainstorming sessions,” stresses Angela Wester. At the end of the first phase of the competition, local juries at each EuroTeQ university select three teams who will go up against each other in the second phase – the European-level EuroTeQaThon. Since 2024, particularly promising teams have been able to take part in an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp run by the IESE Business School in Barcelona, which is also a member of the European University Alliance. “It’s a great springboard for getting a project to the next stage with international support and will possibly even lay the foundation for a start-up,” says Wester.

The EuroTeQ Engineering University is part of the European Universities initiative: out of the Erasmus+ programme, the EU funds cross-border university alliances that test out new cooperation models – not only in research and teaching but also in innovation and transfer. “The initiative is based on the firm belief that European Universities can make a key contribution to tackling major social challenges and promoting sustainable growth, entrepreneurship and employment in their cities and regions,” explains Birgit Siebe-Herbig, Head of Section Research and Internationalisation, University Networks at the DAAD.

Final thesis in cooperation with a company

When it comes to collaborating with the business world, the alliances draw on a broad spectrum of established and innovative approaches. Among the many things on offer to students are real-life laboratories and the chance to do their final thesis in cooperation with a company or to take part in competitions such as the EuroTeQ Collider. The development of vocational further training opportunities in collaboration with corporate partners also plays an important role. Each partner university of the EuroTeQ Engineering University contributes one module to the joint European Leadership Program on Industrial Science (ELPIS); it focuses on rapidly advancing new technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing or biotechnology and puts students in touch with different industries.

“By promoting transfer and entrepreneurship, the European University Alliances create value on many levels,” says Birgit Siebe-Herbig: “When new technologies are translated more quickly into practical applications, the result is increased innovative momentum and the prospect of greater prosperity at regional level, which can also strengthen society’s support for research. Students acquire more practical experience and enhance their intercultural and entrepreneurial skills. At the same time, companies can establish contact with future skilled professionals at the European level, which is especially important in regions suffering from a shortage of skilled labour.” The DAAD supports the 67 German universities that are members of European University Alliances with an accompanying national programme funded by the Federal Ministery of Research, Technology and Space. Among other things, it allows regular networking meetings to be organised, at which experiences and new ideas are shared.

Large-scale research facilities and the “entrepreneurial spirit”

Fundamental research is extremely important for innovation, especially in the field of medicine. In June 2025, the university alliance EUGLOH (The European University Alliance for Global Health) brought researchers from its nine member universities and from large-scale research facilities together with industrial partners and start-ups. Three electron accelerators, including the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, are associate partners of EUGLOH. Synchrotron radiation can be used among other things to examine the structure of proteins and other biomolecules. “The precise characterisation of biomolecules opens up opportunities to develop new drugs far more quickly than before,” explains Felix Poschinger from the EUGLOH team at Universität Hamburg (UHH).

The event in June combined a conference and several-day workshops at research institutions on Hamburg’s Campus Bahrenfeld. Besides the UHH and DESY, these included the X-ray laser research institution European XFEL, the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

The nearly 90 participants, which included PhD and master’s students from all nine EUGLOH universities, discussed not only research topics that the institutions are jointly addressing with companies, but also the entrepreneurial potential to be found at the interface between the health sciences, biophysics and large-scale research infrastructures. “The cooperation with large-scale research facilities helps carry the entrepreneurial spirit into science,” explains Felix Poschinger, who hopes that the event will translate directly into more final theses and dissertations being written in collaboration with business partners. Thanks to the overwhelmingly positive response, Poschinger says that another EUGLOH conference will be staged in cooperation with large-scale research facilities in 2026.

Miriam Hoffmeyer (7 October 2025)