Die neue Förderlinie EXIST-Women wurde am 9. Juni 2023 im Rahmen einer Auftaktveranstaltung mit mehr als 80 Gründerinnen, Multiplikatorinnen und Vertreterinnen von Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen aus ganz Deutschland von Dr. Anna Christmann vorgestellt. Auf der Bühne mit dabei waren Prof. Dr. Heike Marita Hölzner, Katja Brunner, Dr. Julia Rosendahl, Xiaojun Yang und Louisa Wiethold.

The new EXIST Women funding line was presented by Dr Anna Christmann on 9 June 2023 at a kick-off event bringing together more than 80 female entrepreneurs, multipliers and representatives of higher education and research institutions from across Germany. On the stage were Prof Dr Heike Marita Hölzner, Katja Brunner, Dr Julia Rosendahl, Xiaojun Yang and Louisa Wiethold.

The new EXIST Women programme line seeks to encourage women at higher education and research institutions to embark on the adventure of self-employment and thus to raise the share of female managing directors and shareholders of innovative startups in the future. With the new funding line, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is implementing an important project of the Federal Government’s Startup Strategy. Promoting female startup entrepreneurs and diversity is one of the goals of the strategy.

The share of women setting up startups in Germany continues to be low, which means that there remains considerable potential to be tapped. In the last few years, the share of women taking part in the EXIST programme was around 20% on average. The goal is to raise this figure substantially in the coming years.

The Federal Government is providing a total of €6.5 million for the new programme line in 2023. The funding is open to all projects and technology-neutral.

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EXIST Women