{"id":24077,"date":"2025-09-09T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clib-cluster.de\/clib-at-the-innovationskongress-nrw-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T11:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:59:11","slug":"clib-at-the-innovationskongress-nrw-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clib-cluster.de\/en\/clib-at-the-innovationskongress-nrw-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"CLIB at the Innovationskongress NRW 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CLIB at the Innovationskongress NRW 2025<\/h2>\n

800 participants, a brand-new location, and two events merged for the first time to bundle North Rhine-Westphalia’s innovative strength even more effectively. That was the Innovationskongress NRW<\/strong> yesterday at the EUREF Campus in D\u00fcsseldorf. Our colleagues Dennis and Katrin were present with an exhibition booth, a lot of curiosity and open minds to meet new contacts.<\/p>\n

NRW Prime Minister Hendrik W\u00fcst<\/strong>, Minister Mona Neubaur<\/strong>, Minister Ina Brandes<\/strong> have found motivating words to further fuel the courage and will for transformation in North Rhine-Westphalia. Together with Silke Krebs<\/strong>, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Prof. Achim Wambach<\/strong>, PhD President of ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research; Johanna A. Tjaden-Schulte<\/strong>, Member of the Executive Board of NRW.BANK; and Lauren Kjeldsen<\/strong> Executive Board Member of Evonik Industries discussed the strengths, but also the challenges of innovation in NRW. We were especially delighted to see that two of our long-standing members \u2013 NRW.BANK and Evonik \u2013 were present on this panel and that industrial biotechnology played such a major role in the discussion. In six different topic strands smaller workshops and panel discussions gave insights to developments, best practices and experiences by innovators.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 The afternoon ended with a highlight \u2013 the presentation of the Innovationspreis NRW<\/strong>. In four categories innovative companies were awarded \u2013 and three of them are active in the biotechnology.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc5 Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Holger Stark<\/strong> (Heinrich-Heine-Universit\u00e4t D\u00fcsseldorf) won the Innovation award endowed with 75.000 \u20ac for a new class of drugs for glaucoma.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc5 The former scholarship holder of the CLIB Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology PhD Dr.<\/strong> Christian Schwarz<\/strong> (Numaferm) & Prof. Dr. Lutz Schmitt<\/strong> (Heinrich-Heine-Universit\u00e4t D\u00fcsseldorf) won the innovation2business award for their platform technology Numaswitch.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc5 Dr. Martin Schleef<\/strong> (PlasmidFactory GmbH – The Minicircle Company) won the innovation2market award for their minicircles \u2013 small plasmids used e.g to fight cancer.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc5 The audience award innovation4transformation was given to Dr.-Ing. Andreas Bremen<\/strong> (Co-reactive), who wants to transform the building sector with his technology to mineralise CO2<\/sub> produced by the cement industry and re-use it as an additive to cement, proving circular system do work in large industrial sectors.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc4f We congratulate all winners and are looking forward to seeing them scale their business and help drive the transformation!<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 If you want to read more about the Innovationspreis NRW and the Innovationskongress NRW, you can find all information on www.innovation.nrw<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>

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