Award winner Clara Saraceno with State Secretaries Matthias Hauer (BMFTR, left) and Johannes Steiniger (BMWE). Hauer and Steiniger represented Ministers Bär and Reiche.
Christof Paar received one of 20 awards presented throughout Germany. The awards ceremony took place in Berlin.
Professor Günther Meschke, Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer (third from right), and Professor Andreas Ostendorf (to his right) represented Ruhr University Bochum as a founding institution at the ceremony.
Group photo featuring all the 2026 award winners. The award is presented only once every three years.
Clara Saraceno is a professor of photonics and ultrafast laser science at Ruhr University Bochum.
Professor Christof Paar is one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum.
UNIPRENEURS
Awards Recognize Outstanding Commitment to Entrepreneurship
Twenty professors have been recognized by UNIPRENEURS for their outstanding commitment to spin-offs and entrepreneurship at universities. Two of the awards went to Bochum.
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 lead my group in a deliberately entrepreneurial way.
“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.
Keeping real-world applications in mind has always been a great motivation for me.
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.”
The honored individuals play a key role in fostering an entrepreneurial culture at universities.
“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 UNIPRENEURS
About UNIPRENEURS
