Where founders grow up

The first thought that many people seem to have when they visit Brainergy Park north of Jülich for the first time and see the colourful containers of Startup Village Jülich is not so far off the mark. ‘Do you already have a nursery here?’ is a question that employees of the Institute for Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW) at Forschungszentrum Jülich have heard many times before. The INW containers are located on the opposite side of Marie-Curie-Straße, just a few metres away from the supposed nursery. The colourful building complex not only shares its appearance with a kindergarten, but also its aspiration to prepare young people for life. In the case of Startup Village Jülich, this means professional life as an entrepreneur. Here, founders and those who want to become founders learn with the help of experts how to draw up their first business plan, obtain start-up financing and market themselves.

One of these experts works across the street at INW. Felix Strohmaier founded Lemonist GmbH, holds a degree in business administration and is an innovation and transfer manager at INW. ‘For us as an institution where many young, bright minds with lots of ideas work, it’s ideal that space is being created right across the street where they can take their first steps,’ he says. It won’t be long before the first INW students move into the Startup Village. There they will encounter other ideas. They are all united by the concept of sustainability.

The First Signatures

“Promoting sustainable ideas in a sustainable way – that is our guiding principle,’ says Ingmar Stock, head of Startup Village Jülich, during his presentation at HC-H2 Brainergy Park Connects, the working meeting for residents of the park and those who want to become residents. According to Ingmar Stock, the focus is on companies in the field of green technologies. ‘We looked around the region and found that young companies in this field are almost alarmingly underrepresented here. We want to change that.”

The first rental agreements have been signed and the first start-ups have moved into their containers. The first phase of construction, which was completed by the summer, provides space for 16 start-up teams, whose containers are arranged like a wagon fort around the central building. Here, or on the spacious roof terrace when the weather is good, there will be space for events and meetings where ideas can be exchanged and a sense of community can develop. “We attach great importance to the companies based here supporting each other, because we believe that cooperation takes a start-up further than competition. We want to exemplify this in the Startup Village Jülich.”

The container village is intended to be the beginning of a new chapter in the history of young companies. According to Ingmar Stock, it is also about ‘closing the gap between university graduation and self-employment.’ In the medium term, Brainergy Park GmbH’s offering is intended to be a first stepping stone on the way to something bigger. The young companies are expected to grow and become too big for the village. A possible new and significantly larger home is soon to be built, again right in the neighbourhood. The ground-breaking ceremony for the central hub building in the park will take place soon, and the first companies are expected to move into the new building in 2027.

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