QuinCAT opening and KOALA launch

This month saw the opening of the QuinCAT incubator infrastructure and the launch of the KOALA cooperation platform in Aachen. QuinCAT (short for “Quick innovation in catalysis”) offers laboratory space, access to analytics, and modern workstations to those interested in founding a company. In addition to QuinCAT, the KOALA platform – a co-operation between the MPI CEC and RWTH Aachen University – will create a suitable framework with networking opportunities and support services. As important building blocks for the NRW technology transfer landscape, CLIB has supported both endeavours to promote more start-ups in chemistry and will continue to do so.

In his opening words, Prof. Walter Leitner thanked all involved persons who did their best to bring the difficult application and construction phase to a successful conclusion after more than five years. As the RWTH Chancellor’s permanent representative, Michael Tränapp emphasised the importance of this new infrastructure in the context of the overall RWTH strategy – a perspective that was shared by the international keynote speaker Staff Sheehan. Martin Bellof then presented the NRW start-up ecosystem and vividly illustrated the importance of the first follower. Accordingly, the current KOALA team is on a good way as the first potential start-up team around Guido Schroer has already moved in.

In the concluding discussion round, it was agreed that the work is not yet completely done: unfortunately, the funding conditions require companies to leave the QuinCAT structure immediately after their foundation. None of the parties involved thought this was a good solution and announced that they would look for ways to give the young companies a little more time in the structure. It became clear that chemical start-ups face significantly greater challenges than their siblings from the digital sector, especially in terms of infrastructure, and that young companies are therefore in urgent need of structures such as QuinCAT. We are looking forward to working with QuinCAT and KOALA, especially with regard to future projects!