Last Friday, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Board of the BMBF's Cube 5 project met to comment on start-up projects applying for funding under the BMBF's "StartUpSecure" funding programme.
Two funding phases
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports start-up projects in IT security within StartUpSecure in two funding phases. In Phase I, the development phase, research teams work out how their ideas can be technically further developed. In Phase II, the start-up phase, innovative technologies must be further developed to market maturity. Applications for funding in phase I or phase II are submitted in two stages: the first step is an expert statement in one of the four incubators funded by the BMBF. If the project-executing agency's assessment is positive, the call for full proposals is issued.
Technological and economic aspects
The comments by the advisory board members are made with regard to the technological and economic aspects of the start-up projects presented. To this end, Cube 5 convened a committee at the Ruhr-University Bochum. It is characterized by expertise in various areas of IT security and experience with "technology-intensive" start-ups. The members complement each other. Project manager Prof. Dr. Christof Paar supports the committee as an advisory member. Four already founded companies from Cologne and the Ruhr area, which hope for a promotion in phase II, were examined.
Special thanks go to the five full members who can assess the chances of success of the start-ups thanks to their expertise:
- Dr.-Ing. Christof Kortz, Director Strategic Cyber Security Venturing bei innogy Innovation Hub
- Christian Stüble, CTO Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity
- Dr.-Ing. Carsten Willems, Co-Founder VMRay
- Dr.-Ing. Thomas Wollinger, Managing Director of ESCRYPT and
- Dr.-Ing. Christian Zenger, Co-Founder PHYSEC.
General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.