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176 - Mentoring program "The Materials Lab Incubator" (2027/2028)
176 - Mentoringprogramm "The Materials Lab Incubator" (2027/2028) — original title
Your path to submission
- Deadline: 13 November at 11:00 — 12 days left.
- You submit on Vergabemarktplatz (cosinex) — not here and not by e-mail. ↗ Free bidder account on the cosinex platform required (created instantly); offers go through the bidding tool, usually plain text form suffices — no qualified signature. Sort out account and signature first — not on submission day.
- Offer and evidence in: German.
- Collect your evidence — use the eligibility analysis on this page: it lists the requirements and, for known certificates, how to get them.
What the buyer is looking for
The RWTH Chair of Biotechology intends to offer the teams participating in the RWTH ABBt "The Materials Lab Incubator" a structured program that includes coaching, hands-on mentoring, and an entrepreneurial education curriculum. For this purpose, an external mentoring program is to be integrated, which brings the teams together with experienced mentors from the industry and successful founders. · An external service is to be procured for the structured support of the science-related deep-tech incubator Materials Lab Incubator (MerLIn) at RWTH Aachen University. MerLIn is located at the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology and is funded under the STARK funding guidelines. The aim of the incubator is to support start-up teams from the university and non-university research environment in the development of scientific ideas towards marketable companies. The thematic focus is in particular…
Show full description
… on sustainable materials, biotechnology, synthetic biology, microbiology, circular economy, waste recycling and green chemistry. The object of the procurement is the conception, organisation, implementation, coordination and documentation of a structured mentoring and entrepreneurship support offer for the start-up teams funded under MerLIn. The target group consists mainly of deep-tech start-ups or spin-off projects with a high degree of scientific and technological maturity, but often limited entrepreneurial experience. Through the service to be procured, these teams are to be specifically supported in questions of company and product development and accompanied on the way to a marketable company. The service includes in particular the planning and organisation of mentoring events in which suitable mentors are brought together with the respective start-up teams. The mentors should above all be experienced practitioners from relevant departments who can support the teams in individual 1:1 support with specific questions of company development, product development, market validation, business model development, scaling, financing or comparable start-up-relevant topics. The contractor assumes the structured assignment of mentors and teams as well as the further coordination of the resulting mentoring relationships. In addition, the procurement includes mentor management, including mentoring, coordination and organizational involvement in the MerLIn program. This includes, in particular, communication with the participants, coordination of deadlines and procedures, ensuring targeted cooperation between teams and mentors, as well as the follow-up of the agreed measures and results. The resulting mentoring pairings and their progress must be continuously documented by the contractor. In addition to individual mentoring, an entrepreneurship curriculum will be organized and accompanied in a group format. This curriculum is intended to cover start-up-relevant topics in the areas of business and product development and to impart comprehensive entrepreneurial knowledge to the supported teams. In contrast to 1:1 mentoring, this offer is not made individually, but in the form of group formats, workshops or comparable collaborative learning and exchange formats. The service to be procured must be provided as a continuous, structured and fully organised support offer. The contractor shall ensure that the deliverables are implemented on schedule, in a target group-oriented manner and in accordance with the requirements of a science-based deep-tech incubator. A professional coordination of all relevant parties is expected, a comprehensible documentation
Contract
Type of service
Clement What the numbers say about this buyer
- In this sector the buyer awards roughly every 8 months (10 awards, most recently October 2024) — by that rhythm the next award was due around June 2025. The last award went to PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.n = 10
- 31% of the bids received came from other countries (6 procedures with a bid mix) — all bidders, not just the winners. Sector: 6%.n = 6
- The median procedure drew just one bid (454 procedures with a bid count); 66% ended with a single bidder. Sector: median 4 bids.n = 454
- 40% of this buyer's awards went to companies that had already won here before (588 awards since 2016, spread over 341 companies). 60% went to new names.n = 588 awards since 2016
- The award came in at a median 96% of the estimated value (34 awards with both estimate and value) — pricing at the estimate is usually too high here. Sector: 79%.n = 34
From this buyer's documented awards; comparison values from the same sector and country. Not a forecast, not legal advice. As of 01/11/2026.
What you must prove — eligibility criteria
Tender documents — direct download
Who has won at this buyer so far
Across all contract types of this buyer — not just this sector. A city buys software and fire engines through the same purchasing office.
| Company | Awards | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Keysight Technologies Deutschland GmbH · Böblingen | 10 | 2020–2026 |
| H & G Hansen & Gieraths IT Solutions GmbH | 10 | 2022–2026 |
| itiso GmbH · Hamburg | 8 | 2021–2026 |
| Carl Zeiss Microscopy Deutschland GmbH | 8 | 2021–2026 |
| The MathWorks GmbH | 8 | 2021–2026 |
How often this buyer tenders this kind of work
Tactics
When this buyer has awarded in this sector, there was usually a single bid in the end. A solid bid has a real chance here. (Based on 11 completed awards — not a statement about this procedure.)
This procedure allows 39 days between publication and deadline — typical in this country is 32 (median of 20,496 procedures). Much more generous than usual — time for a thorough bid rather than a quick one.
Foreign bidders
In Germany · Business services, 349 contracts went to foreign companies over the last 3 years (of 29,674 recorded awards) — mostly from Belgium, Italy, United Kingdom.
Submission language: German.
How to bid
Guide: how to apply on cosinex Vergabemarktplatz / DTVP → Registration, signature, fees — from the operator's bidder manual.
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