Ulysseus Innovation Hub Health, Ageing & Well-Being launches transnational start-up funding programme

Author: Julia Völker

European funding concept for start-ups in the healthcare sector

From 12 to 14 March 2025, the official launch of the Ulysseus Innovation Hubs Health, Ageing & Well-Being start-up programme took place at the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice. As part of the event, an innovative, Europe-wide support concept was presented, which aims to promote young companies in the healthcare sector through targeted support, mentoring and international networking. A special item on the programme was a practice-oriented workshop in which Dr Constantina Rokos - REACH employee and Ulysseus Work Package Manager - emphasised the importance of empathy in the development of human-centric healthcare solutions.

Practical training and transnational cooperation

The innovative, Europe-wide funding programme aims to strengthen young companies in the healthcare sector through targeted support, mentoring and international networking. Twelve promising start-ups were selected from 46 applications received and will undergo an intensive support programme over the next four months with networking events, specialist lectures, international learning expeditions - including to Canada, France and Münster - as well as individual mentoring sessions.

Workshop: Empathy-Driven Solutions

In interactive workshops and strategy sessions, participants in the funding programme are not only taught specialist skills, but also encouraged to develop important soft skills. A central item on the programme of the kick-off event was therefore the workshop ‘Empathy-Driven Solutions. Designing Thoughtful Approaches to Health & Well-Being’, in which Dr Constantina Rokos impressively demonstrated the importance of empathy in the development of people-centred healthcare solutions. In her interactive presentation, she emphasised: ‘In the context of health & well-being, empathy is crucial for designing human-centred solutions, improving patient care, and creating innovations that truly address real-world needs.’ With these words, she emphasised that good ideas alone are not enough if they are not also implemented in a relevant and practical way. She added: ‘You can have great ideas, but just because an idea is interesting doesn't mean it is relevant!’ and concluded with the motivating statement: ‘With empathy, you will not only grow your start-up, but you will also grow as a human being!’. The Empathy Map, a visual tool used to capture the thoughts, feelings, needs and challenges of a target group in order to better understand their perspective and experiences, was also presented as part of the workshop. This not only gave the participants a sound insight into the basics of the empathy map, but also taught them how empathy-based approaches can help to make services and products relevant to the market in the long term.

Outlook: REACH Demo Day learning expedition

A special highlight of the programme is the learning expedition to the REACH Demo Day, which will take place in Münster on 3 June 2025. On this day, selected start-ups will present their projects to a regionally networked ecosystem of start-ups, institutions and companies. The event offers start-ups a valuable platform for intensive knowledge transfer and the initiation of potential collaborations between international and regional players.

Thematic focus of the Innovation Hub Health, Ageing & Well-Being

The Innovation Hub Health, Ageing & Well-Being deals intensively with the challenges of demographic change. The focus is on innovative approaches to urban ageing and the creation of liveable urban spaces, the development of economic models that meet the needs of an ageing population and research into the influence of environmental factors on ageing and well-being. Interdisciplinary research also plays an important role in gaining a better understanding of biological and social change in the ageing process.

With the launch of the start-up programme and the detailed presentation of the funding concept, a clear roadmap for successful transnational cooperation in the health sector has been presented. The Innovation Hub Health, Ageing & Well-Being of the Université Côte d'Azur thus offers the ideal framework for promoting innovative ideas and developing forward-looking solutions - a concept that goes far beyond technological aspects and also takes into account the social dimensions of ageing and health.

The University of Münster in the Ulysseus network

Ulysseus is one of currently 64 European university networks that have been selected by the European Commission as Universities of the Future. Under the leadership of the University of Seville, the Ulysseus Alliance includes seven other European universities: the University of Genoa (Italy), the Université Côte d'Azur (France), the Technical University of Košice (Slovakia), MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® (Austria), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), the University of Münster (Germany) and the University of Montenegro (Montenegro).

The University of Münster has been part of the network since December 2022 and plays a central role in the areas of Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Through close cooperation with research institutions, companies and regional stakeholders, the University of Münster promotes sustainable knowledge transfer, which supports transfer processes, spin-offs and targeted start-up support, among other things. A particular focus is on the promotion of female, intersectional and social entrepreneurship.

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Ulysseus Days at the University of Münster 

From 28 to 30 October 2024, the Ulysseus Days took place in Münster under the title ‘Navigating Pathways to a Sustainable Future’. On October 28 and 29, the Münster Innovation Hub officially launched within the Ulysseus University Alliance with the event “Explore and Connect: Meet the Innovation Hub of Socio-Ecological Sustainability.” Additionally, the Research & Innovation (R&I) conference “Sustainable Innovations” was held on October 30, focusing on promoting sustainable ideas and solutions.

After the official welcome on Monday morning by Rector Johannes Wessels, the Chief Scientific Officers Doris Fuchs and Tillmann Buttschardt introduced the content of the event with a joint keynote in which they presented challenges and approaches to solutions in the field of ‘socio-ecological sustainability’ from a natural and social science perspective. In a subsequent panel discussion moderated by Daniela Pastoors, Vice-Rector Michael Quante presented the University of Münster’s sustainability strategy. Along with ZIN members Bodo Philipp, Rebecca Froese, and Sigrid Kannengießer, he provided insights into the associated action areas of education, research, transfer, and governance. In this way, the Ulysseus partner universities were able to gain a comprehensive first impression of the University of Münster as a whole and of its endeavours in the field of sustainability.

On Monday afternoon, Cornelia Steinhäuser focussed on the central cross-sectional element of the Innovation Hub's three fields of action - education, research and transfer - by leading a workshop on real-world laboratories and living labs. In the first part, she highlighted these two transdisciplinary approaches, before presenting examples of real-world lab projects from Münster in the second part. Julia Wiethüchter and Rebecca Froese presented the Sunrise and Laterne projects, while Samuel Mössner contributed a concluding lecture on the critical categorisation of this research approach.

In the final session on Monday, which was moderated by Tobias Gumbert, the question of how the Innovation Hub's research network should be organised and developed in more concrete terms was discussed. To this end, he invited Karen Siegel and European Research Services GmbH (ERS) as guests: in her presentation on ‘Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Sustainability Transitions: interdisciplinary and international dimensions’, Karen Siegel shared exciting insights into research in an international context, while ERS, represented by Silke Krol, gave practical advice on how to deal with EU funding formats and application strategies.

Tuesday began with a session on the intersection of education and sustainability, led by Daniela Pastoors. With contributions from Lea Püchel and Annariikka Rosendahl, the session explored dimensions of sustainability as a topic, a social and ecological principle, and a transformative goal in education. Later, Constantina Rokos (with input from Antonia Graf, Lea Kipper, and Daniela Pastoors) facilitated a World Café session emphasizing transfer as an action area, discussing various contexts for collaboration.

These thematic impulses were followed by “lab visits” to MEET, the ‘City Lab’, the Botanical Garden and the university's REACH-EUREGIO Start-Up Centre. These visits demonstrated how sustainability is actively practiced and integrated into the University of Münster’s scientific projects and initiatives.

In the afternoon, an SDG city tour concluded the day’s programme: Shifting from an academic focus, the tour explored sustainable projects in Münster. Highlights included sampling Fairtrade chocolate at the Weltladen and gaining historical insights into Münster's food distribution at the Kiepenkerl statue. At the same time, the Münster IH Local Steering Committee & Scientific Board Meeting took place to strengthen the structural Ulysseus collaboration for the Münster Innovation Hub.

On the third day, Ulysseus hosted its R&I conference at the Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN). Approximately 60 participants attended the dynamic conference, which began with a keynote by Michael Quante reflecting on the moral rights of future generations. This was followed by presentations offering diverse perspectives on socio-ecological sustainability. Throughout the day, three parallel sessions delved into Environmental Ecosystems, Sustainable Education, and Tech and Sustainability Synergies, discussing topics such as maritime tourism, innovative educational approaches, and recycled materials. The aim was to promote and implement innovative ideas in these fields.

With 100 participants in total, the three-day event was well attended. The Ulysseus Münster team expressed gratitude for the active participation of many guests from partner universities and valued the exchange and contributions during the event.

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