The Chair of Entrepreneurship is a key partner in the newly launched European project PIONEER+ ("Pioneering Innovation & Entrepreneurship capacity building activities through Digital Transformation"), which is funded with €1.5 million by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) as part of its HEI Initiative.

The project’s goal is to turn universities across Europe into centers of excellence for digital innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. Under the leadership of the Ionian University (Greece), RPTU – represented by its Chair of Entrepreneurship and Startup Office – is working together with eight partners from seven countries.
RPTU’s involvement focuses on three main contributions:

• Developing and researching a methodology to foster university-based spin-offs, in collaboration with the Business + Innovation Center Kaiserslautern (bic).
• Designing and delivering courses on “AI in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship”, which integrate cutting-edge AI tools into entrepreneurship education.
• Organizing international summer schools to support technology-based startups led by researchers and scientists.
   

“With this project, we are exploring and developing ways to strengthen science-based entrepreneurship across Europe,” says Professor Dennis Steininger, project lead at RPTU. “Digital technologies in particular open up new opportunities to turn research into entrepreneurial innovation – and with PIONEER+, we aim to unlock this potential in a sustainable way.”
PIONEER+ is part of the fourth call of the EIT HEI Initiative and runs from 2025 to 2027. Coordinated by the Ionian University, the project takes a holistic approach to innovation support, including mentoring programs, TTO development, new curricula, and creativity-focused entrepreneurship training.
 

Further Details about the Project:

More information: https://eit-hei.eu/projects/pioneer/

Website: https://pioneerplus.eu/
 

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The Chair of Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce the launch of a new doctoral project by Kathrin Weber, funded through the “InnoProm – Innovation and Promotion” initiative of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The project will run from January 2026 to December 2028 and is co-funded by the European Union and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Project Overview

Titled “FRAME-KI: A Framework for the Identification, Modeling, and Evaluation of AI Value Creation in SMEs,” the research project addresses a key challenge faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): how to systematically identify and evaluate the business value of artificial intelligence (AI).

While AI offers substantial opportunities for improving processes, products, and business models, many SMEs lack structured approaches to assess where and how AI can create tangible value. This project aims to close that gap.

Research Objectives

The central objective of the doctoral research is to develop a practical and empirically validated framework that enables companies to:

• identify relevant AI use cases,
• model their contribution to value creation, and
• evaluate their economic and strategic impact.

The project adopts a dynamic capabilities perspective, examining how organizations can build and adapt internal competencies to successfully integrate and leverage AI technologies over time.

Relevance for Practice and Policy

A key strength of the InnoProm initiative lies in its focus on application-oriented research. The project is designed to closely align academic insights with real-world business needs, facilitating the development of solutions for pre-competitive research and development (R&D) challenges.

By bridging the gap between research and practice, the project contributes to strengthening innovation capacity in the SME sector while also supporting evidence-based decision-making in AI adoption.

Contribution to Talent Development

In addition to its innovation impact, the project plays an important role in the qualification of early-career researchers. Initiatives like InnoProm help ensure a strong pipeline of highly skilled professionals who can drive digital transformation and innovation in both academia and industry.

Project Partners

The research is conducted in collaboration with industry partners:

• AUFWERT GmbH
• Crateflow GmbH
• Wolman Wood and Fire Protection GmbH

• Business + Innovation Center Kaiserslautern GmbH

These partnerships ensure practical relevance and provide valuable insights into real-world applications of AI in different business contexts.
 

About the Funding Program:

The project is funded by the InnoProm – Innovation and Promotion program and co-financed by the European Unionand the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

As part of the “InnoProm – Innovation and Doctoral Research” funding initiative, the Chair of Entrepreneurship conducts the doctoral research project InnoRadar. The project runs from July 2026 to June 2029 and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Project Overview

Under the title “InnoRadar: AI-Supported Scouting, Evaluation, and Matching of Technological Opportunities in High-Tech University Ecosystems”, the project addresses a key challenge in knowledge and technology transfer: technological developments and research results emerge at high speed and are distributed across numerous, often unstructured sources. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, often lack dedicated structures for systematic technology scouting.

InnoRadar examines how artificial intelligence can be used to identify technological opportunities from university ecosystems at an early stage, evaluate them systematically, and match them with the innovation needs of companies. The aim is to provide a systematic, data-driven, and transparent basis for early-stage innovation, collaboration, and investment decisions.

Research Objectives

The doctoral research project aims to develop and scientifically evaluate an AI-supported approach that

• automatically identifies dispersed innovation signals from different sources,
• structures them into standardized and comparable Opportunity Profiles,
• evaluates technological opportunities in a transparent manner while taking potential hype effects into account, and
• matches relevant opportunities with the search and interest profiles of companies, investors, and other innovation actors.

A particular focus is placed on how algorithmic decision support influences the quality, consistency, and susceptibility to bias of decisions in early innovation stages. Methodologically, the project follows a Design Science Research approach and combines the development of the IT artifact with field-based evaluations and controlled research designs.

AI-Based Technology Scout

As part of the project, the web-based software demonstrator InnoRadar is being developed. It processes publicly available innovation signals, for example from publications, research projects, patents, prototypes, or technology-oriented start-up activities, and transforms them into structured profiles of technological opportunities.

The evaluation logic is designed to be transparent and explainable and to take into account not only technological maturity and evidence, but also attention dynamics and hype effects. Through an interactive dashboard, users can search, filter, evaluate, and match technological opportunities with their own search profiles. The reference implementation developed in the project is intended to be published as an open-source solution.

Relevance for Practice and Technology Transfer

InnoRadar is intended to provide innovation-oriented SMEs with more systematic access to technological developments emerging from science and research. At the same time, the approach supports technology transfer actors and investors in identifying relevant developments earlier and in targeting potential collaboration, innovation, and investment opportunities more effectively.

By reducing search costs, increasing transparency, and enabling a more systematic evaluation of technological opportunities, the project aims to strengthen knowledge and technology transfer and enhance the innovation capacity and competitiveness of SMEs in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Project Partners

The doctoral research project is conducted in close cooperation with practice partners from different parts of the innovation and technology transfer ecosystem:

• Next Mobility Labs GmbH
• PECON GbR
• Mosel Ventures GmbH
• G&M Systemtechnik GmbH
• Science and Innovation Alliance Kaiserslautern e. V. (SIAK), associated partner

This collaboration brings together perspectives from technology scouting, venture building, early-stage investment, industrial application, and knowledge and technology transfer in the development and evaluation of InnoRadar.
 

About the Funding Program:

The project is funded within the “InnoProm – Innovation and Doctoral Research” initiative and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Chair of Entrepreneurship, together with partners from the University of the Greater Region, has successfully acquired a pioneering project to promote innovation in the circular economy. This 4-year project, supported by European funding of almost 4 million euros, aims to strengthen sustainable innovation in the circular economy in the Greater Region and beyond.

The project, entitled "UniGR Interdisciplinary Competence Center Metals and Materials in a Circular Economy", is being carried out in close cooperation with start-ups, SMEs and other partners. It aims to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and resources in order to accelerate the development and implementation of circular business models and technologies. Through interdisciplinary research teams, the University of the Greater Region will develop innovative solutions that offer both economic and environmental benefits. The aim is to initiate sustainable change in the region and serve as a model for other regions.

RPTU project manager Prof. Dr. Dennis Steininger emphasizes the importance of the project: "This project marks an important milestone in our efforts to be a leader in the research and development of innovations and business models in the field of sustainable and digital technologies."

About the University of the Greater Region:

The University of the Greater Region is a network consisting of seven universities (the universities of RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Liège, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Saarland, Trier and htw saar as an associated partner) located in the border area of the Greater Region (Germany - Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, Belgium - Wallonia, France - Grand-Est region - Lorraine, Luxembourg).

More than 10,250 researchers work at the University of the Greater Region. Together, more than 141,000 students and around 7,050 doctoral students are educated there.