Project KTUR
The EU-funded project “Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine (KTUR)” brings together innovation stakeholders from business and science across the German-French-Swiss border. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in the Upper Rhine region and to further expand the transfer of knowledge and technology (WTT).
KTUR²: Boosting Trinational Innovation
The overarching goal of the EU-funded project “Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine (KTUR)” is to further strengthen and expand the cooperation between innovation stakeholders, companies and researchers in the Upper Rhine metropolitan region and to work together even more closely on knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) in the future.
After a common KTT identity and the first trinational offers were created in the first project phase until September 2022, the follow-up project KTUR², with the participation of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and under the coordination of the KIT Founders Forge, now plans, among other things, a stronger development of entrepreneurship within the trinational network. The funding of cross-border start-ups and their access to innovation funding programs and financing opportunities in the Upper Rhine region is a priority of the program and is supported by numerous offers. The exchange between the trinational start-up ecosystems with international start-up ecosystems and entrepreneurs is another focus of the project and is supported by the KIT with targeted offers.
The Upper Rhine region as an internationally visible beacon of innovation
The goal of KTUR is to establish the Upper Rhine region as a cross-border innovation hub that receives international recognition and serves as a model region for technological, economic and social innovation. KTUR² brings together science and business to map the region's innovation ecosystem, analyze the needs of various stakeholders and identify existing challenges. It aims to meet the R&D needs of businesses by facilitating access to innovations resulting from research work and to cutting-edge technologies available in cross-border research units.
With the further expansion of a long-term network in the Upper Rhine region, universities and business associations want to continue to learn from each other across borders, continuously consolidate their common identity in the field of knowledge and technology transfer in the Upper Rhine region, and thus reduce existing barriers in order to significantly simplify and strengthen cross-border contacts and project initiation between universities and companies.
Supported and co-financed by the European Union
KTUR² is being funded by Interreg with a total of 2.5 million euros until September 2027 and brings together innovation stakeholders from business and science across the German-French-Swiss border. This time, the University of Strasbourg is the coordinator of KTUR² with a total of 15 consortium partners. In addition to 12 universities, including the Eucor universities (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Freiburg im Breisgau, Haute-Alsace, Basel and Strasbourg), the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau and the TriRhénaTech Universities of Applied (Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Furtwangen, Lörrach, Northwestern Switzerland) are also involved in technology transfer, as are Conectus, Grand E-nov+ and the Alsace Eurométropole CCI.
