The Challenge and Vision
The InnoWerft project is a strategic initiative at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer designed to foster a vibrant startup culture. We create physical, temporal, and interdisciplinary spaces for students and staff to develop their entrepreneurial ideas. The main goal is to bridge the gap between academic research and market ready products. By providing these dedicated environments, the university empowers young talents to transform their academic knowledge into real world solutions and strengthens the regional economy in East Frisia.
To achieve this vision, InnoWerft relies on a decentralized concept of specialized workspaces conceptualized as “Docks” within the project. These Docks are embedded directly within the different faculties, providing students with access to technologies and tools like rapid prototyping and specialized laboratories. Expert facilitators from the respective fields guide the students through their specific challenges. This structure ensures that emerging founders receive both the technical infrastructure and the targeted mentorship required to advance their concepts efficiently.
From a human-computer interaction and mixed reality perspective, the applied research landscape holds immense potential for creating impactful and intuitive new products. A core mission of the InnoWerft project is to facilitate the transition of such high-potential research into the commercial startup market. Here, we highlight two success stories that exemplify this strategic transfer—ventures that have successfully integrated complex technical innovation with user-centric design:
Startup PaneoVR
PaneoVR is an immersive video training toolkit that empowers educators to create their own interactive 360 degree virtual reality scenarios without any programming knowledge. It features a highly accessible web based authoring editor optimized for low threshold usability. The project specifically focuses on improving human computer interaction techniques for content creation, allowing users to build and deploy authentic, cost effective VR learning environments across various disciplines.
Startup Kipti
Kipti is an AI powered collaboration and documentation platform designed specifically for schools and multiprofessional educational teams. It uses intuitive interaction methods like voice and text input to help educators quickly capture observations, which the AI then structures into comprehensive reports and student profiles. From an HCI perspective, it reduces the administrative cognitive load for teachers and creates a seamless, user friendly knowledge management system for the entire faculty.
InnoWerft, MeerCommunity & Funding
Project InnoWerft operates at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer in close partnership with the MeerCommunity Startup Center to transform applied research into viable startups. This initiative is jointly funded by the European Union and the state of Lower Saxony through the European Regional Development Fund. Together with the broader network, the project creates dedicated spaces that support new technologies and strengthen regional innovation.
