The Steinbeis Foundation’s transfer award – the Löhn Award – is bestowed for outstanding projects involving competitive technology and know-how transfer between science and business. Special consideration is given to transfer projects that have been conducted and completed with excellence.
The success of a project is measured principally by the quality of the actual transfer process, the transfer results and identifiable transfer potential. Key features of the transfer process are quality, speed, efficiency and effective collaboration between the partners. The project’s transfer potential and success determine the value of the project and thus decide the business success for all project partners.
The Löhn Award – Steinbeis Foundation’s transfer award – was initiated and first conferred in 2004 by the Steinbeis Foundation in honor of the unique achievements of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Johann Löhn. In 1983, it was Löhn who started turning Steinbeis into the global technology transfer company that it is today, setting up the private Steinbeis University Berlin in 1998, which embodies the very principles of transfer: the merging of theory and practice.
In addition to the transfer prize as a unique sculpture, prize money can also be awarded to the legal entities of the prize winners. The prize money can be assigned to one individual project or split up between several projects and should be used for projects that are innovative and transfer-oriented.
The jury which decides who should receive the award comprises the Steinbeis Foundation Board of Directors, the Chairman and Honorary Trustees of the Board of Trustees.
The sculpture for the Löhn Award was designed by Prof. Dipl.-Des. Detlef Rahe, MFA (Steinbeis Transfer Center i/i/d Institute for Integrated Design, Bremen) and is a symbolic representation of the Steinbeis concept of transfer and the unique technology transfer system developed by Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Johann Löhn – a model which has been operating successfully within the Steinbeis Network since 1983.
The fundamental success criteria that lie at the heart of the L°° (the Löhn Method; “systematic approach and simplicity”) are reflected in the two complementary elements of the sculpture, thus mirroring the “multi-dimensional duality” of a successful transfer process that involves two independent partners working together for mutual benefit.
The key elements of the Steinbeis model – precision, simplicity and complexity, networking and decentralized structures – are reflected in the design and workmanship of the sculpture conferred under the Löhn Award. The three-dimensional, interwoven and overlapping double uprights were designed and sculpted using digital technology. To produce the sculpture, engineers used rapid prototyping and the very latest in ceramic and metallic materials.
The aesthetic appeal of the sculpture and its modern shape, based on innovative geometric engineering, encapsulate the distinction afforded to all transfer projects worthy of the Löhn Award.
Regine Roller ▪ Steinbeis-Stiftung (Stuttgart) ▪ regine.roller@stw.de ▪ +49 711 1839-633