Driving the region forward together: Completed funding projects provide an outlook for the future of Münsterland as a business location

Final convention presents project results

What do small and medium-sized enterprises in Münsterland need to be competitive and innovative? The two joint projects Enabling Networks Münsterland and Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland gave the answer to this question at their joint closing convention in December. The event was hosted by Münsterland e.V., which coordinated the two funding projects as lead partner over the last three years. Around 100 regional stakeholders from companies, business development agencies, universities and transfer organisations came together to exchange information about the results and successes of the funding projects and to take away impulses for the future.

At the convention, Klaus Ehling, board member of Münsterland e.V., also presented the integrated action concept entitled "Transformation Münster.LAND", which was developed in a regional strategy process. It defines the fields of action for the Münsterland economic region with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness and innovative capacity of companies in the Münsterland in the long term and securing it for the future. Ehling: "Cooperation plays an important role in the upcoming transformation in our region. We have recognised that cooperation in concrete projects drives our region forward, creates new ideas and strengthens regional networks. This was demonstrated above all by the joint projects Enabling Networks Münsterland and Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland in the areas of innovation and start-ups. Looking to the future, we want to deepen this cooperation and expand it to all fields of action." Further fields of action from the concept are digitalisation, ecological transformation as well as regional marketing and securing skilled labour.

In the joint project Enabling Networks Münsterland, the project team developed methods and tools to support regional companies in the development of innovations and in the search for suitable technologies. "Small and medium-sized enterprises often do not have the capacities for comprehensive innovation management, which is why cooperative support services in the region are so important," explained Bernd Büdding, project manager of the joint project. "Thus, exciting ideas could emerge in the five think tanks with representatives from companies, research and regional networks, some of which are already being implemented." Short films and panel discussions with representatives from the five think tanks gave participants an insight into three years of project work during the event. The topics included the circular economy, technological solutions in medicine and the use of artificial intelligence in companies.

In the area of start-ups and company succession, the joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland reached not only potential company successors, but also school students who dealt with the topic of start-ups and developed their own start-up ideas. A guest at the closing convention was the student Nour Idelbi. In one of the start-up weeks organised by the project, she developed the idea of an app that provides more safety on the way home. Within two years, Nour Idelbi implemented her idea and published the app "SafeSpace" in the app stores before the end of January.

Both funding projects paid tribute to the strengths and needs of Münsterland as a business location and stand for the importance of regional cooperation. "Our goal is to put Münsterland on the map as a strong business location with further projects and measures," Ehling summed up. The projects were funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the "Regio.NRW" ERDF call.

www.muensterland.com/enabling
www.youngstarts-muensterland.com