Get to know Sprind
A HOME FOR PEOPLE WITH RADICAL NEW IDEAS
We look forward to the future – and want to help shape it. Therefore SPRIND is looking for answers to the social, ecological and economic challenges of our time.
Our goal is to create new disruptive innovations from Germany. That means products, services and systems that make all our lives noticeably and sustainably better.
To achieve this, we bring together new thinkers from science and business, people with outstanding ideas, special expertise and passion.
We create spaces in which people can take risks and think radically differently. We create an entrepreneurial environment that makes ideas become reality.
Our support is comprehensive. We finance, help put together teams and link them with the right networks from science, business and politics.
We only support innovators and innovations that are based on basic humanistic values.
Our goal is to create new disruptive innovations from Germany. That means products, services and systems that make all our lives noticeably and sustainably better.
To achieve this, we bring together new thinkers from science and business, people with outstanding ideas, special expertise and passion.
We create spaces in which people can take risks and think radically differently. We create an entrepreneurial environment that makes ideas become reality.
Our support is comprehensive. We finance, help put together teams and link them with the right networks from science, business and politics.
We only support innovators and innovations that are based on basic humanistic values.
We do what we do because we love it. We want to assist innovators who think the same way with their work, their progress. What this involves, for instance, is focusing not on control, but on shared goals and values.
Seeing and using opportunities, developing and implementing visions.
We have a great desire to tackle things and get something done.
The future is what we make of it.
We have a great desire to tackle things and get something done.
The future is what we make of it.
We want to transfer ideas into products and services that bring long-term benefits for Germany and Europe. That's why we always think and act entrepreneurially – with the agility of a start-up.
We believe in humanist values – in freedom, self-determination and democracy.
We support only civilian projects, not military ones.
The common good and social issues are at the forefront of our work.
We support only civilian projects, not military ones.
The common good and social issues are at the forefront of our work.
Curiosity is the force that drives us. We burn to solve the big problems and take conscious risks to accomplish this.
We work all over Germany. We believe in strong networks – with shared goals.
We are creating an environment in which personalities can unfold, focus on their strengths and collaborate with fellow innovators.
Financing
PROJECT GMBH
Following a successful analysis and evaluation process, SPRIND, at present, has the right to establish project subsidiaries for projects with promising breakthrough potential which are funded with between 4 and 15 million EUR annually by the Federal Government.
During the evaluation process, validation studies can be commissioned to clarify individual questions pertaining to a project application.
CHALLENGES
Teams taking part in our innovation contests, our SPRIND Challenges, can currently receive funding of between around 500,000 and 3 million euros, depending of the stage and topic of the Challenge.
The funding is provided as pre-commercial procurement for research and development services.
FUNKEN
Like its big sister SPRIND Challenges, SPRIND Funke is an innovation competition for world changers - but with a much shorter duration. Depending on the topic and stage of the spark, we currently fund the teams in the SPRIND Sparks with up to EUR 100,000. The funding is provided as a pre-commercial contract for research and development services.
Following a successful analysis and evaluation process, SPRIND, at present, has the right to establish project subsidiaries for projects with promising breakthrough potential which are funded with between 4 and 15 million EUR annually by the Federal Government.
During the evaluation process, validation studies can be commissioned to clarify individual questions pertaining to a project application.
CHALLENGES
Teams taking part in our innovation contests, our SPRIND Challenges, can currently receive funding of between around 500,000 and 3 million euros, depending of the stage and topic of the Challenge.
The funding is provided as pre-commercial procurement for research and development services.
FUNKEN
Like its big sister SPRIND Challenges, SPRIND Funke is an innovation competition for world changers - but with a much shorter duration. Depending on the topic and stage of the spark, we currently fund the teams in the SPRIND Sparks with up to EUR 100,000. The funding is provided as a pre-commercial contract for research and development services.
SPRIND WANTS TO BUILD THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE SPIRIT OF RESEARCH AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
Rafael Laguna de la Vera was born in Leipzig. Early in life, he developed a passion for science, technology and music (particularly for the world of analog synthesizers).
This has remained essentially the same down to the present day. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, research and technology are his theme and motivation, and in his rare spare time it is filters and modulators that set the tone.
Now 56 years old, he founded his first startup at the age of 16 – Elephant Software. Laguna brought a great deal of specific imagination to building financing and managing numerous other technology companies. These include Dicomputer, micado and Open-Xchange AG, currently a market leader in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) environment.
Ultimately, it was Open-Xchange AG – and SUSE Linux – that gave the entrepreneur a reputation as an open-source pioneer and fighter for the open Internet.
Laguna is a philanthropist and a humanist, and European values are firmly anchored in him. A central feature that he brings to the agency – in addition to his professional expertise – as founding director of SPRIND.
Laguna has discussed the details of the ideas and plans for SPRIND in many interviews and some guest articles. You will find all of the links under our website’s magazine section. Take a look – and get to know SPRIND a little bit better.
WHO AM I?
A curious and optimistic person. If you want a good future, you have to create it.
WHAT DO I DO FOR A LIVING? WHAT AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR?
Actually, I’m a founder and investor in the deep-tech Internet environment. Last year I was appointed the founding director of SPRIND, the newly founded German Agency for Disruptive Innovation. Our mission is to turn research results and inventions into new companies or even industries that will secure our prosperity in Germany and Europe. Yes, that’s all ;)
HOW I BELIEVE WE WILL LIVE IN 10 YEARS…
As an optimist and reader of “Factfulness,” I want to help ensure that the trend of recent decades toward improving the quality of life for the vast majority of people continues into the future. As a global community, we should and will continue along this path. The UN Millennium Development Goals are a good compass for this. In my view, the greatest challenges facing Germany and Europe are to stake out our role and position in the face of all-encompassing digitalization, climate change and demographic trends.
HERE’S WHAT I’D LIKE TO CHANGE IN GERMANY RIGHT NOW…
I would replace the “German fear” gene with a courage gene. We have achieved so much in Germany and Europe in the last 75 years. 120 years ago, the physics and chemistry books were written in German. We invented entire industries and were the world’s pharmacy. I’d wish we all had more courage and desire to work together on a future that is viable for us, our children and all other living things on the planet.
WHAT DO “COHESION” AND “INNOVATIONS” MEAN TO ME?
At the moment, the “Black Lives Matter” movement offers a dramatic reminder that it is essential for a healthy society to be fair and governed by the rule of law – and that people should enjoy the same opportunities and the same living conditions wherever possible. That’s the glue that holds together the kind of society in which I want to live. Only if we can create this equal treatment can we also tap the full potential of society. If there are parts you exclude, then you’re not running at full power.
Technical and social innovations are the engine that improves the quality of our lives and extends our lifespans. I am not concealing the fact that climate change is the result of the combustion of coal, oil and gas that goes hand-in-hand with our modern lives. But as I said a moment ago: It is within our grasp to pull ourselves out of this mess by our own bootstraps. The only way to solve the problems of progress is through more progress. All we have to do is make that happen!
This has remained essentially the same down to the present day. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, research and technology are his theme and motivation, and in his rare spare time it is filters and modulators that set the tone.
Now 56 years old, he founded his first startup at the age of 16 – Elephant Software. Laguna brought a great deal of specific imagination to building financing and managing numerous other technology companies. These include Dicomputer, micado and Open-Xchange AG, currently a market leader in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) environment.
Ultimately, it was Open-Xchange AG – and SUSE Linux – that gave the entrepreneur a reputation as an open-source pioneer and fighter for the open Internet.
Laguna is a philanthropist and a humanist, and European values are firmly anchored in him. A central feature that he brings to the agency – in addition to his professional expertise – as founding director of SPRIND.
Laguna has discussed the details of the ideas and plans for SPRIND in many interviews and some guest articles. You will find all of the links under our website’s magazine section. Take a look – and get to know SPRIND a little bit better.
WHO AM I?
A curious and optimistic person. If you want a good future, you have to create it.
WHAT DO I DO FOR A LIVING? WHAT AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR?
Actually, I’m a founder and investor in the deep-tech Internet environment. Last year I was appointed the founding director of SPRIND, the newly founded German Agency for Disruptive Innovation. Our mission is to turn research results and inventions into new companies or even industries that will secure our prosperity in Germany and Europe. Yes, that’s all ;)
HOW I BELIEVE WE WILL LIVE IN 10 YEARS…
As an optimist and reader of “Factfulness,” I want to help ensure that the trend of recent decades toward improving the quality of life for the vast majority of people continues into the future. As a global community, we should and will continue along this path. The UN Millennium Development Goals are a good compass for this. In my view, the greatest challenges facing Germany and Europe are to stake out our role and position in the face of all-encompassing digitalization, climate change and demographic trends.
HERE’S WHAT I’D LIKE TO CHANGE IN GERMANY RIGHT NOW…
I would replace the “German fear” gene with a courage gene. We have achieved so much in Germany and Europe in the last 75 years. 120 years ago, the physics and chemistry books were written in German. We invented entire industries and were the world’s pharmacy. I’d wish we all had more courage and desire to work together on a future that is viable for us, our children and all other living things on the planet.
WHAT DO “COHESION” AND “INNOVATIONS” MEAN TO ME?
At the moment, the “Black Lives Matter” movement offers a dramatic reminder that it is essential for a healthy society to be fair and governed by the rule of law – and that people should enjoy the same opportunities and the same living conditions wherever possible. That’s the glue that holds together the kind of society in which I want to live. Only if we can create this equal treatment can we also tap the full potential of society. If there are parts you exclude, then you’re not running at full power.
Technical and social innovations are the engine that improves the quality of our lives and extends our lifespans. I am not concealing the fact that climate change is the result of the combustion of coal, oil and gas that goes hand-in-hand with our modern lives. But as I said a moment ago: It is within our grasp to pull ourselves out of this mess by our own bootstraps. The only way to solve the problems of progress is through more progress. All we have to do is make that happen!
Berit Dannenberg is a science manager. She has been SPRIND's commercial managing director since March 1, 2021. Originally, she studied law in addition to macroeconomics, but already noticed during her legal internship that traditional legal professions were not really her cup of tea. Too little teamwork, too little interaction. Instead, she moved into university administration as a research assistant, working as an international projects officer and head of internal auditing at the Helmholtz Association, amongst other assignments. Later, as personal assistant to the Vice President for Economics and Finance, she worked on restructuring this area at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Most recently, she headed the administration of Faculty IV - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at TU Berlin.
Berit Dannenberg admits to being a food snob, reads Dummy and enjoys practicing Pilates.
WHAT FASCINATES ME ABOUT SPRIND?
I love all the projects that are currently in progress. It is very exciting to hear that we are funding the development of a drug that could potentially cure the Alzheimer's disease in just a few years. Or a technology that can ensure that microplastics are removed from water. All of that is both incredibly relevant and fascinating. And that also applies to a project where I didn't understand a word at first: the analog computer chip. In that case, I can only believe experts when they say that minimized analog computers would be much more energy-efficient and could solve an incredible number of problems. Funding this kind of projects, as well as developing management and administrative tools for this purpose - that's a challenge I'm very much looking forward to.
WHAT DO I HAVE IN MIND AS A COMMERCIAL MANAGING DIRECTOR?
I am a lawyer by profession and an enabler by design. At least that's what people say about me. In terms of SPRIND, it means that the German government is our 100% shareholder, entrusting us a lot of taxpayers' money. When we identify projects with leap innovation potential, we and the inventors want to get started as fast as possible. On the other hand, there are a huge number of regulations that have to be complied with. These were all created with good intentions, to prevent taxpayers' money from being wasted and misused. My job is to improve the framework for SPRIND's essential work in cooperation with our shareholder in a way that allows us to get projects with great potential rolling as quickly as possible.
WHAT DO I WANT TO RETHINK AND REDESIGN?
SPRIND aims to use taxpayers' money to fund projects that have left basic research behind and have taken first steps on the road to commercialization. However, this is precisely what legislation does actually not allow, because the state is only allowed to intervene into economy in justified exceptional cases. Thia is a serious dilemma. We now have to try, for example, to introduce new rules that will allow for much more in the area of innovation funding. After all, the goal is to create real benefits for society. I believe that government must be able to act in this regard. This is something we are going to re-examine. In the legal/administrative area, too, we need to take a more innovative approach.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT IS A NO-GO FOR ME?
The phrase, "We've always done it that way."
MY FAVORITE DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION?
Always the next one.
Berit Dannenberg admits to being a food snob, reads Dummy and enjoys practicing Pilates.
WHAT FASCINATES ME ABOUT SPRIND?
I love all the projects that are currently in progress. It is very exciting to hear that we are funding the development of a drug that could potentially cure the Alzheimer's disease in just a few years. Or a technology that can ensure that microplastics are removed from water. All of that is both incredibly relevant and fascinating. And that also applies to a project where I didn't understand a word at first: the analog computer chip. In that case, I can only believe experts when they say that minimized analog computers would be much more energy-efficient and could solve an incredible number of problems. Funding this kind of projects, as well as developing management and administrative tools for this purpose - that's a challenge I'm very much looking forward to.
WHAT DO I HAVE IN MIND AS A COMMERCIAL MANAGING DIRECTOR?
I am a lawyer by profession and an enabler by design. At least that's what people say about me. In terms of SPRIND, it means that the German government is our 100% shareholder, entrusting us a lot of taxpayers' money. When we identify projects with leap innovation potential, we and the inventors want to get started as fast as possible. On the other hand, there are a huge number of regulations that have to be complied with. These were all created with good intentions, to prevent taxpayers' money from being wasted and misused. My job is to improve the framework for SPRIND's essential work in cooperation with our shareholder in a way that allows us to get projects with great potential rolling as quickly as possible.
WHAT DO I WANT TO RETHINK AND REDESIGN?
SPRIND aims to use taxpayers' money to fund projects that have left basic research behind and have taken first steps on the road to commercialization. However, this is precisely what legislation does actually not allow, because the state is only allowed to intervene into economy in justified exceptional cases. Thia is a serious dilemma. We now have to try, for example, to introduce new rules that will allow for much more in the area of innovation funding. After all, the goal is to create real benefits for society. I believe that government must be able to act in this regard. This is something we are going to re-examine. In the legal/administrative area, too, we need to take a more innovative approach.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT IS A NO-GO FOR ME?
The phrase, "We've always done it that way."
MY FAVORITE DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION?
Always the next one.
As an economist, Jano Costard has a passion for competition. As SPRIND's Challenge Officer, he creates a space in which new thinkers compete to find the best solutions to the great challenges of our time. He is convinced that this competition of ideas and implementations helps to unleash the full potential of innovators and their ideas. After all, it takes nothing less to turn leap innovations into reality.
Barbara Diehl is a self-confessed rare bird and a world wanderer - for over 15 years on the move at the crossroads of science, research, society and entrepreneurship, most recently as Head of Transfer and Innovation at the Helmholtz Association. At SPRIND, she is primarily concerned with partnerships in science ("Partnerships and networks are half the battle when it comes to the successful transfer of research into application").
Christian Egle (referent of the management) sees himself as a kind of interdisciplinary caretaker ("I am helping put a man on the moon.“); always focused on the fact that there are no trees on the tracks blocking the way to the target. Shout "Here!" when it is a matter of communication and events. Has an understanding of biochemistry, a little.