Copenhagen, we are coming
The Gründungswerft has successfully prevailed in the national preliminary decision and will represent Germany in the European final of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards EEPA 2025 in Copenhagen. Together with the The Migrant Accelerator the association is one of the two nationwide winners out of 43 applications.
A milestone for Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the German startup scene regional anchoring under international integration
With its application the association convinced particularly through three forward looking approaches
- Hanseatic founding scene:
The founding shipyard understands Mecklenburg Vorpommern as a strong founding country with 1.6 million people. Through a nationwide community network founding actors from city and country are actively connected with each other. - Supraregional Community
With a Polish-German association, an office in Oslo and growing member numbers in Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein the association grows beyond borders after just four years. - Bottom-up instead of Top-down:
Founders and entrepreneurs are not only at the center of activities but also actively shape the ecosystem. The startup factory lives Hanseatic values and combines them with a confident view of European innovation processes.
Our goal is to establish Northeast Germany as a model region for connecting rural areas and urban impulses. This award is a strong signal that innovative entrepreneurship is also visible, relevant and worthy of recognition outside of the big metropolises.
— Board of the Gründungswerft e. V.
MV as European model for innovative founding structures
The vision of the founding shipyard: A region that shows how bottom-up communities and institutional structures can jointly form a sustainable innovation ecosystem. This interplay convinces not only in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern but also finds recognition at the European level.
Thanks to the supporters
A special thank you to the RKW Kompetenzzentrum, the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK) and all volunteer members and partners in the Gründungswerft network
About the Founding Ship e V
Since 2022 the Founding Ship stands for a strong overregional network for the promotion of entrepreneurship in Mecklenburg Vorpommern With a focus on startup events knowledge transfer and political participation the association actively shapes the startup culture in northeastern Germany
