{"id":37750,"date":"2026-10-13T10:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/?p=37750"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:14:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:14:05","slug":"10-years-of-innoday-from-the-lichtwiese-campus-to-hesses-innovation-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/news\/news-en\/10-years-of-innoday-from-the-lichtwiese-campus-to-hesses-innovation-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Years of INNODAY: From the Lichtwiese Campus to Hesse\u2019s Innovation Ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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What began in 2016 with a few dozen people and a handful of exhibition stands on TU Darmstadt\u2019s Lichtwiese campus has grown into a major meeting point for startups, research and innovation in Hesse. Ten years on, INNODAY shows how ideas can evolve \u2013 from university research to applications, technologies and companies.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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INNODAY made its debut on 8 February 2016. Back then, the event was still small in scale, close to the university community and driven by a clear ambition: to make the entrepreneurial potential of TU Darmstadt visible.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, INNODAY has grown considerably. Today, more than 100 exhibitors from across Hesse demonstrate where research can lead when it moves beyond the lab and into real-world applications and the market. Since 2018, the darmstadtium has been the event\u2019s permanent home. What began as a university-focused gathering has developed into a meeting place for a much broader innovation ecosystem.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n

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Big ideas, prominent voices<\/b><\/p>\n

INNODAY looked beyond the boundaries of the campus from an early stage. At its second edition in 2017, Nobel laureate Dan Shechtman spoke on \u201cTechnological Entrepreneurship\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the event has continued to expand its reach. Today, Unite!, the European university alliance, the Rhine-Main Universities and, for the past two years, FUTURY bring together participants from well beyond TU Darmstadt.<\/p>\n

One thing has remained at the heart of INNODAY: the connection between science and entrepreneurship. This is also the mission HIGHEST has pursued since 2013 \u2013 building bridges between research, venture creation and the market. INNODAY brings this work together in one place.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n

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From ideas competition to unicorn<\/b><\/p>\n

One long-standing fixture is the TU Ideas Competition. Its history dates back to 2007, and it is now taking place for the 19th time. This means it has been fostering entrepreneurial thinking at TU Darmstadt for even longer than INNODAY itself.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, ideas travel a very long way. Ten years after the first INNODAY, Prof. Dr. Markus Roth takes the stage at the darmstadtium. His company, Focused Energy, has become the first TU Darmstadt spin-off to achieve unicorn status.<\/p>\n

From the first exhibition stands on the Lichtwiese campus to a unicorn on stage \u2013 few images capture INNODAY\u2019s evolution better.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n

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Ten years in just a few minutes<\/b><\/p>\n

Our anniversary video looks back at how INNODAY has changed over the past decade. The short compilation brings together moments from across ten years \u2013 from its early days on the Lichtwiese campus to the main stage at the darmstadtium.<\/p>\n

Watch 10 Years of INNODAY:<\/b>
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/ewKGWN9VXU4<\/a><\/p>\n

Ten years, countless ideas and even more connections \u2013 and the next story may already be taking shape somewhere on campus.<\/p>\n

Science. Startups. Future.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":37769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[1375],"class_list":["post-37750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-innoday-2-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37750"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37757,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37750\/revisions\/37757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}