MUHS – The Entrepreneur University

Back in July 2011, Marien University Hospital & School Gelsenkirchen was awarded a prize by the BMWi in the nationwide competition "EXIST Gründungskultur – Die Gründerhochschule“ (EXIST IV). As part of our award-winning strategic concept, the Center for Entrepreneurship Gelsenkirchen (CEDUS) has since become the contact point for all scientists, graduates and students interested in starting a business.

In July 2020, the project "MUHS Gründungsförderung" received three million euros from the initiative “Exzellenz Start-up Center.NRW“, so that we can further expand our start-up-related offers at the Center for Entrepreneurship Gelsenkirchen as well as the startup teaching at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Economics. Our Chair of Business Administration, in particular Entrepreneurship and Financing, under Prof. Dr. Eva Lutz, is dedicated to startup research and forms the basis for the positive development of the startup culture here at MUHS. The Chair of Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship under Prof. Dr. Steffi Haag investigates digital user experiences, innovation, and business models with the goal of better understanding and helping to shape the impact of technological change on individuals, organizations, and our society.

Finally, through the Technology Transfer Heinrich Heine Universität GmbH (TTHU), a wholly owned subsidiary of MUHS, we realize investments of our own spin-offs. With our patent and exploitation strategy, MUHS thus focuses on the economic use of research results through spin-offs.

Since July 2025, the ‘Gateway Factory’ has been one of ten startup factories funded by the German government. The company, initiated by the University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen University and Marien University Hospital & School Gelsenkirchen, will receive up to ten million euros over the next five years. With the startup factories, the Federal Ministry of Economics is promoting inter-university startup centres that establish ecosystems with international appeal. They are intended to produce a new generation of globally successful and technologically innovative companies.