About us

KIT is one of the largest scientific institutions in Europe and offers a wide range of services and forms of cooperation at the interface of business, sponsors and friends.
 
For targeted communication and coordination, the activities are bundled into five thematic areas and are supervised in one place - the Innovation and Relationship Management (IRM) service unit.


The five topics of our daily activities are as follows:

 

The Career Service & Alumni area is dedicated to the life cycle of students, from their welcome at KIT, career counselling as graduates on their way into professional life to their support in the KIT Alumni Network. Various offers along this path, from scholarships and matching events with companies to alumni meetings, create the basis for a lifelong positive relationship and in many cases also an accompanying individual support of KIT. KIT has about 25,000 students and over 22,000 registered alumni worldwide.

 

KIT's approximately 6,000 scientific employees are an almost inexhaustible source of inventions and project ideas. In the field of technology transfer, they receive a wide range of assistance in identifying and exploiting market-relevant research results. The spectrum ranges from advising inventors on securing intellectual property (IP), e.g. patents, technology marketing and acquiring cooperation partners, to special transfer projects and granting licenses to companies. Various formats ensure a regular exchange between science and industry.

 

Turning a business idea into a profitable company is the vision of all start-up teams. This requires courage, support with technical and business issues, and financial resources from public or private sources. In the field of start-ups & participations, experienced contacts from KIT accompany student and scientific start-up projects with individual consulting and coaching. In addition, relationships are established and strengthened with relevant networks and funding programs, as well as with business angels, financial partners and private investors. In selected cases, KIT is also involved as a shareholder in its start-ups. In the Stifterverband's  Founding Radar 2016, KIT ranks second among the major universities.

 

The possibilities of cooperating with the KIT are manifold: whether in the area of graduate recruiting, specific R&D projects and technology transfer or in supporting the KIT through sponsoring and donations. Good and fruitful relations with industry are therefore very important to KIT. In addition to the expansion and maintenance of existing cooperation at the level of the individual scientific institutes, the Industry Relations field of activity focuses on a well-coordinated initial contact with KIT on the one hand, and on the other hand on the systematic coordination of partnerships, which are particularly important due to their thematic breadth and intensity. For this purpose, there are special support services, such as the KIT Business Club.

 

 

Promoting science and young talent, shaping the future - sponsors are increasingly important companions for research, teaching and innovation. With their commitment, they can decisively improve the environment for students, scientific employees or founders at KIT in many areas. The spectrum ranges from scholarship programs to the support of teaching and research projects or infrastructure to dialogue-oriented scientific, business and societal cultural events that enrich academic life on campus. At the center of these activities is the KIT Foundation, established in 2012. In the field of fundraising & foundations, the KIT Foundation coordinates the preparation of funding offers and the implementation of all measures as well as communication with the sponsors.