Deep Tech (short for "Deep Technology") stands for technologies and companies that offer solutions based on significant scientific or technical innovations.

The founding members of the "Startup Campus Alliance" are:

• University of Leipzig
• Technical University of Dresden
• Technical University of Chemnitz
• TU Bergakademie Freiberg
• Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden
• Hochschule für Technik, Business and Culture Leipzig
• Hochschule Mittweida
• HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
• Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Ernst Abbe University Jena

The "Startup Campus Alliance" aims to strategically combine the strengths of the universities in Saxony and Thuringia in the area of start-up support and thereby create effective synergies. Joint teaching formats, shared infrastructure and interdisciplinary collaboration will create innovative support programmes for talented people and teams interested in founding a company.

A central component of the alliance is to make successes in the field of university spin-offs visible and thus strengthen the public perception of Saxony and Thuringia as start-up locations - both nationally and internationally. "In addition, the cross-university cooperation contributes significantly to the further development of the regional start-up ecosystem. After all, most start-up ideas already come from universities," says Leipzig University Professor Utz Dornberger, who was elected Chairman of the association. There were almost 100 start-ups in Saxony in 2023, more than 60 of which were due to start-up projects from universities and research institutions.

Utz Dornberger is a professor of development economics with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. He also heads the Leipzig Self-Management Initiative (SMILE), Leipzig University's start-up initiative.

"This alliance creates new spaces for intensive, profitable networking. It promotes exchange between start-up initiatives and makes an important contribution to university innovation strategies and to sustainably strengthening the region's innovative power," says Prof Dr Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University. Leipzig University is happy to contribute to the newly founded association with great commitment. "We bring very good experience and expertise to the table." This can be seen, among other things, in the Stifterverband's Start-up Radar 2025, "where we were rated particularly highly in the categories of start-up qualification and start-up support."

The organisational basis for the collaboration is the non-profit association "Startup Campus Alliance". The association serves as a coordinating platform through which the diverse activities of university start-up support can be efficiently bundled and strategically aligned.

In addition, the association structure enables joint representation of interests in the Business Opportunities Ost (boOst) Ecosystem gGmbH, which is currently being founded in parallel to the establishment of the alliance. In addition to the savings banks in Saxony, SpinLab in Leipzig and TUDAG, talks are currently being held with other private investors. This strong partnership is intended to support the founding of innovative start-ups from the universities.

boOst gGmbH is applying for the "Startup Factories" competition organised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, which supports selected German startup ecosystems in the development of knowledge-based spin-offs. The aim is to develop a model for a thematically or regionally oriented "Startup Factory" that operates as a private-law organisation outside the university framework.