UIIN Forum: Pathways for Impactful Collaboration

Arrive, meet peers and settle in before the sessions begin.

Opening remarks from the hosts and UIIN, setting the stage for the forum and introducing the core focus: how universities and industry structure environments that move research to market across the full pipeline. | Speakers: Prof. Angela Rösen-Wolff – TU Dresden, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Welf-Guntram Drossel – Fraunhofer IWU, Arno Meerman – UIIN

How can universities move beyond fragmented initiatives to design coherent, industry-embedded pathways from research to application? This opening discussion will explore how universities and industry structure innovation campuses, translation environments and operating models that connect research, talent and industry. The session will also consider what institutions and companies often underestimate when trying to scale pathways beyond individual projects or pilots. | Speakers: Laura Sager – Falling Walls Foundation, Jaci Barnett – Oxford University Innovation

Connect with peers over lunch and continue the conversation in an informal setting.

This interactive, UIIN-led workshop invites participants to examine how collaboration moves from research to application across universities, companies and ecosystem partners. Through guided activities, participants will map existing collaboration pathways from both university and industry perspectives, identify gaps and challenges, and explore where collaboration can be strengthened across the pipeline. | Speakers: Prof. Dr Anne-Katrin Haubold, Hong-Ly Nguyen – HTW Dresden / Infineon Dresden, Philipp Janello – BMW Group, Marco Weicholdt – Startup Factory boOst

Discover how universities and industry are structuring practical research-to-market pathways in different contexts. This session will showcase applied examples such as innovation campuses, startup factory models, lab-to-market translation through IP and licensing, and entrepreneurship and talent development embedded within research environments. The cases will highlight what these pathways look like in practice, what enables them to work, and what others can adapt to their own contexts.

Continue the conversation and connect with peers in an informal evening setting.

Put on a VR headset and step inside Infineon’s high-tech working environment. Choose a short immersive introduction or explore the full clean room tour, meet the Infineon team and discover the people, technologies and career opportunities shaping the future of semiconductors in Dresden.

Opening remarks from the hosts and UIIN, reflecting on the first day and setting the stage for the discussions ahead. | Speakers: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ingo Gestring – HTW Dresden, Arno Meerman – UIIN

Using Dresden’s semiconductor ecosystem as a living case, this session explores how universities, companies, research institutes and ecosystem actors act as regional anchors while operating in global value chains. The discussion will focus on talent pipelines and international collaboration, applied research infrastructure and testbeds, and the coordination needed between universities, industry, research organisations and government to support technology development and adoption at scale. Speakers: Uwe Gäbler – Infineon Technologies, Dr Christian Koitzsch – ESMC

Join facilitated small-group roundtable discussions exploring the practical challenges of structuring and operating research-to-market pathways. Participants will exchange perspectives on issues such as interdisciplinary collaboration, industry engagement, scaling beyond pilots, talent, incentives and organisational capabilities, before contributing to a short collective synthesis.

Summary of key insights and reflections from the hosts and UIIN, connecting the discussions back to the wider UIIN community and future collaboration opportunities. | Speakers: Prof. Angela Rösen-Wolff – TU Dresden, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ingo Gestring – HTW Dresden, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Welf-Guntram Drossel – Fraunhofer IWU, Arno Meerman – UIIN

Put on a VR headset and step inside Infineon’s high-tech working environment. Choose a short immersive introduction or explore the full clean room tour, meet the Infineon team and discover the people, technologies and career opportunities shaping the future of semiconductors in Dresden.