Ferdinand von Steinbeis, the man who lent the Steinbeis Network his name, was dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship as well as knowledge and technology transfer. Today, more then 150 years later, Steinbeis remains committed to these goals – and, with its more than 1,000 enterprises, successfully pursued these goals in 2014.
At the board of trustees meeting held in April, Dr.-Ing. Leonhard Vilser, chairman of the board of trustees, thanked all employees in the Steinbeis Network for their commitment to bringing about this success over the past year.
Prof. Dr. Michael Auer and Manfred Mattulat, board members of both the Steinbeis Foundation and Steinbeis GmbH & Co. KG fur Technologietransfer, welcomed 79 new enterprises to the Network in 2014. As of December 31, 2014, the Steinbeis Network had grown to encompass 1,006 Steinbeis Enterprises, all working to promote knowledge and technology transfer. Under the Steinbeis umbrella, they carry out projects in research and development, consulting, evaluation and expert reports and training and employee development. More than 6,000 dedicated employees (1,744 employees, 3,691 independent contractors and 717 professors) were involved in these Steinbeis projects in 2014, achieving total turnover of Euro 144.4 million.
The more than 1,000 enterprises in the Steinbeis Network span all Steinbeis Enterprises (SEs). Depending on the specialist discipline and the focus of work, these SEs employ experts in legally dependent Steinbeis Transfer Centers, Steinbeis Research and Innovation Centers, Steinbeis Consulting Centers, Steinbeis Transfer Institutes or companies of an independent legal nature. The Network also includes Enterprises operating under franchising arrangements or minority shareholdings. The majority of SEs are located at research institutions – particularly at universities and universities of applied sciences – placing Steinbeis at the source of original research and expertise.