“Knowledge transfer is the third key responsibility of universities alongside research and teaching,” says Anne-Kathrin Guder. She has been the new head of UniTransfer since December 2023. “This all-important third mission is firmly anchored in the Higher Education Act. And for good reason. Universities are drivers of innovation and sources of inspiration. The ideas, technologies, and research findings developed here radiate out into the non-academic environment – i.e. into society, politics, and business. In this way, higher education institutions have a decisive influence on key issues – from social justice and climate change to artificial intelligence. This is a great responsibility. As the new head of the knowledge transfer office, I am working together with my team to ensure that the knowledge developed here will contribute to shaping and advancing social transformation processes.”

Anne-Kathrin Guder studied literature and philosophy at the Philipps University of Marburg. From 2001 to 2007, she worked as a playwright, notably at the Hessisches Landestheater Marburg and the Stadttheater Gießen. Subsequently, she worked at the Heilbronn Adult Education Center as head of department for cultural education and creativity until 2009. In 2010, she moved to Hamburg to work in science management. There, she headed the Pro Exzellenzia career competence center until 2018, a joint initiative of Hamburg’s seven universities dedicated to increasing the number of women in leadership positions. In 2016, Pro Exzellenzia was awarded the prestigious Chefsache Award. From 2018, Anne-Kathrin Guder was the coordinator of the “Innovative Hochschule Jade-Oldenburg!” transfer project at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. There, she was appointed transfer team leader in the Research and Transfer Department in July 2021. In December 2023, she became head of the knowledge transfer office at the University of Bremen.

“Ever since its founding, the University of Bremen has always had a strong commitment to knowledge transfer,” says Anne-Kathrin Guder. “The University of Bremen’s Transfer Strategy, which was adopted by the Academic Senate in 2019, is strong and specific. It focuses on social responsibility and dialogue between academics and all relevant stakeholders from community, culture, education, politics, and business. The University of Bremen’s new Mission Statement also links sustainability and social responsibility with knowledge transfer. These issues are extremely important to me personally. For this reason, the University of Bremen is an excellent place for me to promote and further strengthen the idea of knowledge transfer both within and outside of the university setting.”

One of the key strengths of UniTransfer is the wide range of topics covered by Anne-Kathrin Guder’s dedicated team, consisting of twenty-one staff members. These range from the “University Meets School and the Community” area, the Praxisbörse, German scholarships, foundations, and mentoring programs to company investments, fundraising, sponsoring, and patents, as well as the Uni-Bremen-Campus-GmbH and start-ups. “As a one-stop service point, we want to encourage and support all researchers to take advantage of this wide range of knowledge transfer opportunities,” explains the new head. “In future, I plan to focus more strongly on collaboration that brings together knowledge from different disciplines and thus provides important impetus for innovation. I also want to take a closer look at science communication, which researchers use to inform the public about their work, and centralize it. I would also like to make use of both existing and new projects to sensitize students to the topic of knowledge transfer.”

When it comes to start-up consulting, Anne-Kathrin Guder would like to focus even more on issues of sustainability: How can prospective start-ups contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? And how can social innovations contribute to sustainability? “Recently, there have been excellent examples of successful and sustainable start-ups from the University of Bremen. Two of them are Ubica Robotics and Aisencia.” The Ubica Robotics start-up builds autonomous scanning robots for the retail sector and uses AI to improve efficiency in infrastructure (SDG 9 “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”). The young company was awarded the 2022 euRobotics Technology Transfer Award for this. Aisencia GmbH also focuses on artificial intelligence: founder Maximilian Schmidt and his team have developed and trained an AI diagnostic tool that analyzes skin tissue samples and can now detect more than 40 skin diseases – including numerous types of cancer – and thus support dermatologists with their diagnosis (SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-being”). Aisencia initially opted for funding as part of the EXIST Transfer of Research program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and was supported in the complex application process by BRIDGE, the University of Bremen’s start-up support, which is part of UniTransfer.

“These great successes show what can develop from good ideas when you discover and support them, in other words, when researchers are infected with the ‘start-up gene’ right from the start,” explains Anne-Kathrin Guder. “That’s why we want to increasingly use our “innovation scouting lens” when looking around the university to see which exciting ideas may still be slumbering in people’s drawers and could be put into practice with suitable funding. But knowledge transfer is no longer just about start-ups and patents. For this reason, I would like to also focus more on innovation transfer from the social sciences and the liberal arts.”

“The third mission, knowledge transfer, is so important because it anchors the university in the wider community,” Anne-Kathrin Guder states. “It not only plays a role in tackling major challenges such as climate change, but can also solve everyday issues.” For example, what do we need to live a good life and how do we want to live? In a shared flat, in a multi-generational house, in a multicultural environment, in the countryside, or in the city? UniTransfer is an outstanding service unit that wants to contribute to exactly these issues. The team is highly motivated, welcoming, and open to change and new developments. And our doors are open to everyone at the university. Just drop by for a visit.”