Welcome to CEIT

Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transformation

About Us

In times of economic upheaval, it is important to develop new business fields through innovation, business creation and start-ups, but also to ensure economic sustainability of traditionally successful companies and institutions. Overall economic challenges such as crisis management, transformation of the energy system, digital transformation or the increasing number of new businesses are regionally reflected in many different ways.

The Faculty of Management and Economics of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum established the CEIT to develop future perspectives in a regionally networked manner and to unite those who are interested in the topics of entrepreneurship, innovation and transformation. The CEIT, with its combination of management and economic expertise, intends to serve as a connecting element and catalyst for economically profound projects in research and practice.

Current News

Spring School „Digitalisierung und Entrepreneurship“ zum Oberthema „Nachhaltige Transformation von Umwelt und Gesellschaft“ – Bewerbungen ab sofort möglich

December 17, 2024

Prof. Dr. Daniela Gimenez Jimenez gave a guest lecture on the topic of “Opportunity Recognition in Entrepreneurship”

December 5, 2024

PDMA’s Global Student Innovation Challenge 2025

December 2, 2024

Ruhr University Bochums has joined the CLIB Cluster

December 2, 2024

CEIT Practitioner Series: Developing business opportunities at the interface of digitalisation and sustainability at BASF

November 25, 2024

Hackathon by DÖRKEN Digital Ventures together with Vonovia on the building turnaround in the RUB Makerspace on 30 November 2024

November 8, 2024

Scholarship for Students - Hans Böckler Stiftung

November 5, 2024

CEIT Practitioner Series: Sustainability management/transformation at GRILLO-Werke AG

November 4, 2024

Our working areas

The CEIT’s fields of activity are defined by the following functions:

01

Basic function

The CEIT conducts research in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation and transformation and initiates projects in cooperation with other members of the faculty.

02

Initiator function

The CEIT makes it easier for students, graduates and researchers to take the step into founding a company.

03

Transfer function

The CEIT designs teaching and advanced training courses in its subject areas and establishes networks with political and economic actors

for mutual knowledge transfer.

04

Transformation function

The CEIT accompanies entrepreneurs and companies throughout the entire life cycle in order to increase resilience of different operational functions (sales, financing, risk management, etc.).

05

Catalytic function

The CEIT defines itself as a catalyst for the pooling of competences for research-focused innovative projects and initiates inter- and transdisciplinary projects at the RUB and within the University Alliance Ruhr. Furthermore, it supports the identification of projects with a potential for commercialisation and spin-offs.

06

Guide function

The CEIT informs people inside and outside the university about activities at the RUB in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and transformation and, if necessary, refers them to other contact persons. For this purpose, a signpost has been set up on the website.

Professors of CEIT

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Bröring

is head of the Chair for Entrepreneurship and innovative Business Models at the Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transformation of the Faculty of Management and Economics since 2022.

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Teaching focus

Business model innovations
Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition
Technology dynamics and transformation

I enjoy being a professor at the faculty because....

Prof. Dr. Torsten Schmidt

ist seit 2019 außerplanmäßiger Professor an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum und Leiter des Kompetenzbereichs Wachstum, Konjunktur, Öffentliche Finanzen am RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung in Essen.

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Er studierte Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universität Göttingen und wurde an der Universität Zürich promoviert. Seit 2000 ist er am RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung tätig. In seinen Forschungsarbeiten analysiert er empirische und wirtschaftspolitisch relevante Fragestellungen aus den Bereichen der Konjunkturanalyse und -prognose, der mittelfristigen Wirtschaftsentwicklung sowie des demografischen Wandels.

Teaching focus

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I enjoy being a professor at the faculty because....

…hier die wirtschaftspolitische Relevanz sowohl in der Forschung als auch in der Lehre eine große Rolle spielt. So kann ich meine Erfahrungen als Konjunktur-Chef des RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung unmittelbar einbringen.

Prof. Dr. Nicola Werbeck

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Teaching focus

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I enjoy being a professor at the faculty because....

Prof. Dr. Brigitte Werners

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Teaching focus

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I enjoy being a professor at the faculty because....

Prof. Dr. Uta Wilkens

geb. 1967, ist seit 2005 Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls Arbeit, Personal und Führung und Geschäftsführende Leiterin des Instituts für Arbeitswissenschaft mit Schwerpunkt in der wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

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Vita: Studium der BWL und Wirtschaftspädagogik an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen und der FU Berlin mit Abschluss Dipl.-Kffr. (1992) und Dipl.-Hdl. (1994); Promotion (1998) und Habilitation (2004) jeweils an der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaft an der TU Chemnitz mit Forschungsaufenthalten in Washington D.C. und am MIT Boston (1996) sowie JAIST in Japan (2000). 2004 Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine BWL, insbes. Personalmanagement und Organisation an der wissenschaftlichen Hochschule Lahr (WHL); seit Ende 2005 Lehrstuhlinhaberin an der RUB. Zwischen 2008 und 2015 auch Prorektorin für Lehre und in 2018 Gastprofessorin an der University of Colorado, Boulder. Ausgehend von konkreten Veränderungen der Arbeitswelt beschäftigt sich Uta Wilken in Ihrer Forschung mit der Frage, was Organisationen in volatilen Umwelten adaptionsfähig macht und mit welchen Kompetenzen Individuen diese Veränderungsprozesse bewältigen und selbstbestimmt gestalten können. Dabei steht der digitale Wandel im Zentrum des Interesses. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Integration von künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in Arbeitsprozesse.

Teaching focus

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I enjoy being a professor at the faculty because....

…ich hier Menschen in ihrem Entwicklungsprozess begleiten und dabei Anregungen geben kann, immer auch über den Tellerrand hinaus zu blicken. Es gibt so viel zu entdecken.

Students & Entrepreneurs

Certificate in Entrepreneurship

for Bachelorstudents

The certificate is an offer of the Ruhr-Universität within the framework of undergraduate teaching. It is an additional qualification within the regular studies, the special framework conditions for the optional area are noted on the page.

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Micro Credential:
Innovation & Entrepreneurship

for Masterstudents

With the Micro Credential, students in the Master's program can expand their competencies in the area of entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial thinking and action and also receive a certificate of achievement upon successful completion.

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Matchmaking

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Mehr zu folgenden Themen: Informationen für alle Studiengänge, Anerkennungen und Einstufungen, Bachelor M&E (1-Fach-Bachelor), Bachelor Wirtschaftswissenschaft (2-Fach-Bachelor BWL/VWL), Masterstudiengänge

Mehr Infos

For Students

Teaching Offers

Seminar

2 contact hours

irreg.

Video seminar

4 contact hours

WS 2024/25

Seminar

2 contact hours

irreg.

Lecture

2 contact hours

Lecture

2 contact hours

Seminar

2 contact hours

irreg.

For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship

The Faculty of Business and Economics has set itself the goal of being the central economic entrepreneurship competence on campus and in the region. To promote the start-up culture, we offer – also in cooperation with various faculties of the RUB, the Worldfactory and other partners from science and industry – numerous teaching and further education programmes, advisory and networking opportunities.

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Educational offers on the topic

Fit für die Gründung

Joint workshop of the Faculty of Economics and the engineering faculties of the RUB for doctoral students. The focus of this event is on the topic of start-ups. The founding team “PHYSEC” got to know each other during this event.

Dr. Andreas Bonse, Dr. Fabian Schmitz, Dr. Anna Talmann, Prof. Dr. Nicola Werbeck

Mentoring Start-Up.TransferNRW

Content-related support and coaching of the founders, especially with regard to organisational and strategic aspects as well as with regard to the development and expansion of their network. Provision of resources; for example in the form of premises, software, equipment or access to students as assistants, interns or for project-related collaboration in the form of theses.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Weiß

Mentoring Program des WORLDFACTORY Start-up Center

Mentoring promotes the exchange of knowledge and experience, it steers thinking in new directions and supports networks.” This is how the WORLDFACTORY START-up Center advertises its mentoring programme on its website. Following this motto, we are currently supporting the young start-up Dormciety as part of the WSC’s mentoring programme, which emerged from the faculty’s own entrepreneurship activities to create networks and thus enable the founding team to follow new paths for successful further development.

Lea Decker, Prof. Dr. Nicola Werbeck

Santander Entrepreneurial Idea Competition

“The “Entrepreneurial Idea Competition” is aimed at RUB students (Bachelor, Master, PhD) with innovative ideas from science and research. “Whether flyer, poster or idea sketch, there are no limits to your imagination. set. Send us a meaningful presentation of your founding idea and win 1,500 euros! In addition, you will be given the opportunity to give your best in a creative video pitch within 2-3 minutes. all out in a creative video pitch. Send us an appealing video and use the opportunity to opportunity to prove that your idea should be promoted!”

Lea Decker, Prof. Dr. Michael Roos, Nicholas Schmidt, Dr. Fabian Schmitz, Dr. Anna Talmann, Prof. Dr. Nicola Werbeck

Researchers & Research Institutions

Research projects

bottom-up.city - Start-up Transfer.NRW

Single Project

Clarisa: Climate-Related Risk Assessment & Scenario Analysis - EN

Collaborative Project

Project Y

Collaborative Project

PRIMED: Redesigning the Primary Sector for Maximizing Bioeconomy Development

Collaborative Project

UNIC Thematic Line: Entrepreneurial Learning for Innovation

Collaborative Project

Bio4MatPro: Kompetenzzentrum zur Biologischen Transformation von Materialwissenschaften und Produktionstechnik

Publications

Does Gender matter for Export Behavior? Evidence for German Companies, forthcoming in International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship

Automation and the Fall and Rise of the Servant Economy, with H. Strulik, forthcoming in European Economic Review.

Ohlert, S., Laibach, N., Harms, R., & Bröring, S. (2025). Opportunity recognition in the tension field of knowledge and learning: The case of converging industries. Journal of Business Research, 186, 114993.

Link

Baaden, P., Rennings, M., John, M., & Bröring, S. (2024). On the emergence of interdisciplinary scientific fields: (how) does it relate to science convergence?. Research Policy, 53(6), 105026.

Link

Rennings, M., Baaden, P., Block, C., John, M., & Bröring, S. (2024). Assessing emerging sustainability-oriented technologies: the case of precision agriculture. Scientometrics, 1-30.

Link

Tsvetanova, L., Rennings, M., & Bröring, S. (2024). Actors and sectors in technological innovation systems: patterns of knowledge development in the field of second generation biorefineries. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 1-16.

Link