Joint promotion of entrepreneurship and startups in pilot projects
29 April 2025
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Futury – The Future Factory have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation within the FORTHEM Alliance. As an innovation platform, Futury brings companies and startups together to provide founders with optimal support from the idea to the market launch and to sustainably promote the entrepreneurial spirit of the Rhine-Main region. The aim of the new cooperation is to expand the innovation ecosystems of both partners and to develop joint activities in areas such as entrepreneurial education, sustainability, digital and green change, and innovation made in Europe.
The partnership complements existing initiatives within the European University Alliance FORTHEM that connect universities with social actors, business, and politics. It is also in line with the new Future Factory, a joint project of the three Rhine-Main Universities Frankfurt, Mainz, and Darmstadt, the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, and Futury. The Future Factory has set itself the goal of developing 1,000 startups in the Rhine-Main region by 2030. Through JGU, Futury will also work with FORTHEM Alliance partner universities to develop programs and exchange formats that promote entrepreneurial thinking among students and staff across Europe.
FORTHEM gives Futury access to a network of nine European universities with 232,000 students and 36,000 employees. In return, FORTHEM will benefit from the expertise and experience of the Futury innovation network in the startup and entrepreneurship sector.
About FORTHEM
FORTHEM is one of now 65 European University Alliances through which the EU Commission intends to create a European Higher Education Area. The FORTHEM Alliance aims to bring its members and people from all over Europe together – traversing language-barriers, international borders, and academic disciplines – to bring the European idea to life, to promote exchange at a more personal level, and to manifest the commitment to common democratic values. The partner universities promote the mobility of students and employees at their universities and educate their students to become cosmopolitan and responsible European and Global Citizens, who respect and appreciate internationality and interculturality and, based on this, work together on solutions for current challenges facing society.
The FORTHEM network maintains extensive local links in all the home countries of the nine partner universities, some of which have been cooperating for many years and at the same time are open to new forms of collaboration and exchange, with the enduring goal of reinforcing the multilateral European network in its ability to innovate and the close interplay of learning and teaching, research, and practical application.
About Futury – The Future Factory
Futury is an innovation platform that brings companies and startups together to tackle transformative challenges and promote sustainable innovation. Founded in 2015 out of the Values Foundation, Futury aims to drive value-driven innovation and actively shape social change. Futury supports talents and startups throughout the entire life cycle: from idea development to scaling. Futury offers a unique ecosystem that quickly transfers startup ideas and research results into practice. Futury is backed by the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), i.e. Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and TU Darmstadt, as well as the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Transfer centers such as HIGHEST, Unibator, the Startup Center Mainz, and the Entrepreneurship Center of Frankfurt School are firmly integrated to efficiently support startups.
Through a strong network of industry partners, scientific institutions, and investors, Futury accelerates innovation processes and enables quick access to knowledge, capital, and pilot projects. As a center of gravity for innovation, Futury connects science, business, and founders – and creates solutions for a competitive future.