The Steinbeis idea

Founded in 1971 as an umbrella institution, the Steinbeis Foundation for Business Promotion (STW) is the headquarter of a network of local companies and one of the leading organizations in Europe in the field of technology transfer. It is named after Ferdinand von Steinbeis (1807-1893), a mastermind of modern enterprise development who made an outstanding contribution in the 19th century to the industrial, commercial and business development in Wuerttemberg, at that time an independent state in South Western Germany.

The Steinbeis network

The Steinbeis Foundation pursuits the goal of making the existing technological and scientific know-how of universities and research institutions accessible for small and medium-sized enterprises, enabling them to become better in creating innovative products with shorter time-to-market. In 2016, more than 1,000 local transfer centers of the Steinbeis Foundation with 4,800 employees worked on more than 20,000 projects with a total turnover of 100 million Euros. Every local Steinbeis transfer center (STZ) forms a self-contained unit with certain profile, but can take advantage of the enormous synergies of the entire Steinbeis network when needed.