Each project leads to the next: stories behind the winners of the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award
The project drew to a close, then it won the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award – the Löhn Award – and then? What happened next? Steinbeis experts describe what happened to them and their teams after the award ceremony and how the award helped them. There are also a large number of winners of special awards, who were recognized for their outstanding contributions to knowledge and technology transfer and highlight how many successful projects lead to the next one.
2004 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Kuntz †
The Löhn Award jury honored the pioneering contributions of Walter Kuntz to technology transfer.
2006 | Award Winner
Steinbeis Transfer Center for Medicinal Biophysics, Sensovation AG
Project: A Miniaturized Fluorescence Measurement Module for Use in Medical Diagnostics
“The Medicinal Biophysics Steinbeis Transfer Center (STC) was the first Steinbeis Enterprise to be founded at Heidelberg University Hospital. The honor of winning the Löhn Award just years after setting up the STC confirmed that when it comes to fundamental research in the field of medicine and biophysics, synergistic collaboration can work with medium-sized firms operating at the forefront of international technology. The award had a lasting impact in motivating up-and-coming scientific staff and PhD students at the STC and encouraging them to get involved in technology transfer projects and consulting. As a result, I’d like to thank the Steinbeis Foundation once again on behalf of my co-workers and PhD students.” Prof. Dr. Rainer Fink (Steinbeis)
2006 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Birkel
Eberhard Birkel received the Transfer Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to technical advisory services
2007 | Special award winner
Senator E.h. Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Schmitt
Steinbeis honored the personal commitment of Wilhelm Schmitt to Steinbeis with the Transfer Award.
2007 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen van der List with the Steinbeis Transfer Center Microelectronics/ Göppingen
Jürgen van der List and his colleagues won the Löhn Award in honor of their outstanding achievements and successful technology transfer projects.
2008 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Prof. h. c. Eberhard Kallenbach †
The jury of the Löhn Award honored Eberhard Kallenbach for his many years of outstanding services to technology transfer in the Steinbeis Network.
2009 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Nikolaus Kappen †
Nikolaus Kappen received the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award in honor of his many years of outstanding service as director of the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Computer Applications and his commitment as a university professor.
2009 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Max Syrbe †
Steinbeis honored Max Syrbe for his outstanding personal commitment to knowledge and technology transfer as a long-standing member of the Steinbeis Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Steinbeis Foundation.
2009 | Award winner
School of Management and Innovation (SMI), Steinbeis University Berlin, and PSD Bank Berlin-Brandenburg eG
Project: Enhancing the Success of Communication at PSD Bank Berlin-Brandenburg eG
“The Löhn Award was fantastic confirmation that we were doing the right thing with our research into ‘real life.’ The collaborative project with PSD Bank Berlin-Brandenburg was an enormous help for the bank, and at the same time it laid a foundation for a dissertation that received a summa cum laude and a publication in the magazine for business administration. We continued our partnership with the bank and looked, among other things, at the positioning of the financial institution as a ‘bank of values.’ The underlying idea of the Transfer Award had a strong influence on my professorial chair and still does, particularly in the teaching of business administration, where we notice a tendency for people working in research to detach research from real life. This is a tendency that I find a bit worrying for a number of reasons. Ultimately, the idea behind transfer-oriented research – which I like to describe as ‘thinking on the principle level and acting on the phenomenon level’ – has made its way into the discussion on how to move our university forward.”
Prof. Dr. Dr. Helmut Schneider (Steinbeis)
2010 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Boelke
Klaus Boelke received the Löhn Award for his many years of successful work as a director of Technology Consultancy (his Steinbeis Transfer Center at Heilbronn University), and his ongoing commitment to technology transfer.
2010 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Kull
The Transfer Award jury honored Hermann Kull for many years of outstanding achievement in the field of technology transfer as part of the Steinbeis Network.
2010 | Award winner & 2012 | Special award winner
Steinbeis Transfer Center for Drive and Handling Technology in Mechanical Engineering in collaboration with the Siemens Generator Plant in Erfurt
Project: An Innovative Bending Machine for Large-Scale Induction Conductors
“Receiving the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award – the Löhn Award – in honor of development results is an acknowledgement
of the teamworking skills of the transfer center and recognition of its achievements. The announcement of the award motivated the research team. Also, some even bigger projects were awarded by the Siemens generator works in Erfurt and then implemented. On top of that, a number of companies in the region became aware of us and this helped expand our customer base. Overall, the award had a very positive impact on the finances of the Transfer Center.” (Steinbeis)
2011 | Special award winner
Prof. Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann
Steinbeis honored Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann for outstanding achievements in the field of aeronautics and lightweight construction.
2011 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr. Werner Bornholdt
Werner Bornholdt received the Löhn Award for his many years of outstanding contributions to knowledge and technology transfer in the Steinbeis Network.
2012 | Special award winner
Sachihiko Kobori
The jury of the Löhn Award honored Sachihiko Kobori for his many years of outstanding contribution to knowledge and technology transfer within the Steinbeis Network in Japan.
2012 | Award winner
Steinbeis Research Center Material Engineering Center Saarland (MECS), shared with Atotech Germany GmbH
Project: Controlled Self-Healing Process for Electrical, Extremely Stressed Galvanic Systems of High-End Circuit Board Production
“For us at the Steinbeis Material Engineering Center Saarland, the Löhn Award 2012 was the starting signal for
unprecedented developments. Due to the national attention that the transfer award brought with it, we continue
to benefit from enquiries and projects to this day. This has enabled us to successfully expand our core competencies in the areas of surface engineering, materials engineering, and 3D microstructure research, thus making key contributions to major national and international projects. We now have 19 employees and are constantly on the lookout for competent specialists to join the team. Due to the close and good cooperation with Saarland University, we are also always very close to the current research trends and thus also well positioned on an interdisciplinary level, for example with the local computer science in the field of digitalization of materials science and engineering. And with our patented surface functionalization, which was developed in close cooperation with TE Connectivity, the next promising project is already in the starting blocks.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Mücklich, Dominik Britz (Steinbeis)
2012 | Award winner
Steinbeis Transfer Center Embedded Design and Networking, shared with PHYWE Systems GmbH & Co. KG
Projekt „Drahtlose Sensoranbindung für die didaktische Messtechnik“
“We received the Transfer Award for our very first end-to-end development of a systems application for the Internet of Things. Based on this, we successfully worked on many interesting future-oriented developments and projects with Cyber-Physical Systems. Without a doubt, the boost the award gave to our reputation was a help in this.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Sikora (Steinbeis)
2013 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr. h. c. Lothar Späth †
The jury of the Löhn Award honored Lothar Späth for his outstanding achievements and contributions as a co-founder and supporter of Steinbeis.
2014 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr. Joachim Goll
Joachim Goll received the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award in honor of his many years of outstanding contributions to targeted knowledge and technology transfer.
2015 | Special award winner
Prof. Dr. habil. Hans Jobst Pleitner
Steinbeis honored Hans Jobst Pleitner for his many years of outstanding services to bilateral transfer between science and SMEs.
2015 | Award winner
Steinbeis Transfer Center Energy-Efficient Power Electronics for Electrical Drives and Power Storage Systems, shared with Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH
Project: Raw Data Analysis and the Precise Measurement of Electric Drives
“The Transfer Award was an amazing prize and a sign of appreciation for my Steinbeis colleagues and our partner from industry. The Steinbeis Transfer Award allowed me to get to know lots of new people within the Steinbeis Network and other companies. The award motivated us, and the prize money put us in a position to embark on further long-term projects, even without receiving a specific brief from customers.” Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Teigelkötter (Steinbeis)
2016 | Special award winner
Prof. Karl Schekulin
Karl Schekulin received the Löhn Award in honor of his many years of outstanding contributions to knowledge and technology transfer for the Steinbeis Network.
2017 | Award winner
Steinbeis Transfer Center for Material Development and Testing (WEP) and SEW-Eurodrive GmbH & Co. KG
Project: Optimizing Production Technology with Wiegand Wires Used as an Energy Source
“Both for us and our collaboration partner, SEW-Eurodrive from Bruchsal, receiving the Transfer Award for our successful work on optimizing so-called Wiegand wires went down extremely well, not just within the organizations but also elsewhere. Among other things, the award drew attention to our technicalexpertise in comprehensive material analysis, especially in the field of microscopic experimentation potential. Of course, this had and still does have a positive and lasting impact on the reputation of the Steinbeis Transfer Center. The project we won the award for has now been completed, and on a technical level it reached a point where no further optimizations could be expected in terms of material analysis, so SEW-Eurodrive is now in a position to make things happen with a product that’s absolutely ready for the market. Looking back at what happened, not just in terms of the project itself, we feel a certain sense of pride but at the same time we really look forward to the potential this will open up for us in the future.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Norbert Jost (Steinbeis)