The incubation programme of the University of applied sciences (HTW) Dresden goes international by collaborating with a network of community driven innovation spaces in Germany and African countries. In doing so, they aim to expand their connections in order to benefit from the exchange of experiences and practices.
The HTW Dresden has a strong focus on entrepreneurship education and its incubator is part of the local start-up support programme ‘Dresden exists’ which was initiated by the Dresden Technical University (TU Dresden) and involves other regional research institutions.
Driven by the need of exchange of experiences and growth opportunities the HTW's incubator programme ‘Gründungsschmiede’ decided to collaborate with the ice-hub-community, an emerging open network which is enabled by GIZ in partnership with various local organizations. ICE stands for innovation, collaboration and entrepreneuship and currently consists of four ice-hubs: iceaddis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), icecairo (Cairo, Egypt), icealex (Alexandria, Egypt) and icebauhaus (Weimar, Germany). The collaboration between the hubs is facilitated virtually as well as physically.
The HTW incubator, which was very successfully generating sustainable start-ups by providing a range of free services and infrastructure, had already built up a network in the region. Nonetheless they decided to become more international and initiate a process of sharing international knowledge and experience. After a visit of the iceaddis the HTW incubator was convinced being part of the network would be an enriching process for all parties.
The goal was to increase the network both for incubation institutions and for entrepreneurs. Start-ups with possible future growth perspectives are especially depended on international contacts and networks. To encounter the strong demand for exchange on best practices and Networking, an international experience exchange platform between academia, innovation labs, founders and entrepreneurs to support start-ups and entrepreneurs should be implemented.
First the incubator made efforts to connect with the icealex hub in Alexandria, Egypt. The undertaken activities can be divided into three steps:
The transferability of proven approaches of collaboration and consultation between incubators in Egypt and Ethiopia was confirmed. One important insight was that consultancy and exchange of experiences don't have to be an asymmetric process from north to south but also work from south to north or in between southern regions.
Beyond that the HTW is assembling an exchange platform with Egyptian universities and other ice-hubs to share experiences in the development of proper star-up support programmes.
A mentorship programme was created to bring together entrepreneurs with a knowledge community from universities and private institutions. Initially it was a difficult process to recruit mentors for the programme but as the network grew and became more visible, mentorship became more and more attractive, not least because they would also benefit from the community.
The example of the ‘Gründungsschmiede’ Dresden and the ice-hub network illustrates that collaboration within different regions that face different environments can still be enriching for all involved partners. Although the frame conditions in different regions vary in a great extent there are always overlapping points that favour collaboration and exchange of experiences within mutual learning processes. However, face-to-face communication is crucial to create trust and build up long-term relationship, which goes along with the need for funding resources.