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Close-up of a landmark in the Ruhr region against a red evening sky © Marcel R​/​stock.adobe.com
UNIPRENEURS

Awards Recognize Outstanding Commitment to Entrepreneurship

Photo: Three people are visible in the photo. A woman is receiving an award. © Jürgen A. Morgenroth ​/​ Stifterverband
Award winner Clara Saraceno with State Secretaries Matthias Hauer (BMFTR, left) and Johannes Steiniger (BMWE). Hauer and Steiniger represented Ministers Bär and Reiche.
Among the honorees are Professor Clara Saraceno, a researcher in Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science at Ruhr University Bochum and principal investigator in the RESOLV Cluster of Excellence, and Professor Christof Paar, an expert in Embedded Security. He is one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum and a professor at Ruhr University Bochum.

The award ceremony took place on September 22, 2026, in Berlin, in the presence of two Federal Ministries, which are co-patrons of UNIPRENEURS. UNIPRENEURS is the most prestigious award for promoting entrepreneurship in higher education and research in Germany, presented every three years.

“I’m delighted with this award. I lead my group in a deliberately entrepreneurial way, because research and entrepreneurship differ less than people assume: In both cases it’s about setting goals, leading a team, and delivering results. The foundation, however, remains freedom of research – it isn’t the opposite of that mindset, it’s the precondition for it. That both of these come together at Ruhr University and in RESOLV is not something to take for granted,” says Clara Saraceno.

Christof Paar states: “It’s a great honor for me to be selected for the UNIPRENEURS Award. I started my career as a technician and keeping real-world applications in mind has always been a great motivation for me while doing science. Technology developed by my group has led to five startups, including escrypt GmbH that was acquired by ETAS/Bosch and is now a global leader in automotive cybersecurity.”

“With the UNIPRENEURS initiative, we are strengthening the entrepreneurial landscape at German universities by highlighting the pivotal role professors play,” said Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister for Research, Technology, and Space. “The honored individuals play a key role in fostering an entrepreneurial culture at universities and are thus important drivers of Germany’s innovation and future competitiveness.”

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche also praised the professors’ achievements: “UNIPRENEURS exemplifies the strong link between scientific excellence and entrepreneurial courage at our universities. The honored professors make a significant contribution to the competitiveness of Germany as an innovation hub.”

About the person 

Clara Saraceno

Christof Paar

About UNIPRENEURS

UNIPRENEURS

This news item was originally published on the website of Ruhr University Bochum.

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