The University of Duisburg-Essen is strengthening its start-up activities with the "GUIDEplus" project. This also includes the establishment of two new professorships. The overall project manager for the emerging project is Professor Ahlemann.

In addition to the new professorships, two co-creation labs are about to be set up. Those are fully equipped workspaces for start-up teams, one with a digital focus in Duisburg, and one with a focus on product innovations in Essen. The workspaces are equipped with everything from cloud infrastructures to 3D printers. Here, the start-up teams can plan their projects, get in touch with other people, and develop and design own ideas. The co-creation labs are part of the "GUIDEplus" project, for which the university will receive 3.5 million euros from the NRW Ministry of Economics until 2024.