Unicorn Fund | Inspiration for the University of Freiburg’s Future
Help shape the Excellence Strategy
What we’re looking for
Unicorns are ideas that revolutionize the market. They’re pioneering and change existing systems.
We’re certain that there are also unicorns to be found at the University of Freiburg, ideas that can change and improve the University. Perhaps one has snuck into a laboratory unnoticed, rolled itself up under the radiator in a seminar room, or hidden itself between bookcases, or maybe it’s gathering dust in one of the many corners where we shelve good ideas for lack of adequate space to develop them.
Our goal is to support the members of the University in creating space for groundbreaking and forward-looking ideas, because progress needs space. We’re looking for projects and plans that initially have an impact in small areas yet could possibly inspire entire faculties. These projects can take on the form of a living lab or focus on a group of people as change agents. Taken together, these ideas have the potential to change the entire University. We’re looking for ideas that provide structure and are transferrable to other areas, ideas that dare to re-think the University, that stir things up and create a sensation, that are big and unique.
We’re looking for unicorns.
What we offer
We offer venture capital – venture means taking risks and pushing forward into new territory. That also includes the possibility of failure. We make funds available for experiments with an uncertain outcome. It’s initially uncertain whether there will be a Unicorn Fund at all – it depends on the University’s success in the Universities of Excellence funding line. We hope that you will not shy away from this risk and will even, in the best case, contribute with your idea to making our proposal in the Excellence Strategy successful.
up to 100000 €
over three years
In the case of double success (the UFR becomes a University of Excellence and your idea is selected), you’ll receive up to €300,000 for a period of three years. That’s €100,000 a year to make your idea into a prototype, i.e., to realize your idea in a small context – for instance at a professorship or a department, or for a particular, well-defined group. You can then evaluate this trial run and find out whether your idea can be developed further for or scaled up to the entire University or parts of it. It’s up to you to decide whether to use the money for human or physical resources or both, whether to have your project accompanied by an external coach, or whether to purchase material at a hardware shop and build a physical prototype.
Who can take part
The Unicorn Fund is geared towards research and research management teams that develop an idea together of how to make the University of Freiburg more resilient, inviting, and forward-looking. We’re looking for approaches to how the University can be made into a trailblazer in a particular area and how ideas can be translated into sustainable structures.
The initiative is about practical improvements, not research projects. The submitted ideas will be evaluated by the central University of Excellence project team. We’re interested in the following aspects in particular:
- the power of the idea to inspire change
- the relevance of the problem that the idea could solve
- the feasibility of the idea in the form of a prototype within two to three years
- ideas for assessing the effectiveness and scalability of the project
- the suitability of the team
- realistic financing with the requested sum
