TRANSPLANT Day: Bridging Academia and Industry in Plant Sciences

© HHU/ Steffen Köhler

© HHU/ Steffen Köhler

© HHU/ Steffen Köhler

© HHU/ Steffen Köhler

The first TRANSPLANT Day, titled "CEPLAS meets industry," was held to explore research transfer collaborations between academia and industry, aiming to enhance the impact of fundamental plant science research on society and the economy through research transfers and scientific entrepreneurship.

The event started at 1pm with an introduction to TRANSPLANT Days by CEPLAS Innovation Manager, Dr. Ricardo Godinez, who thanked attendees and invited them to "LEARN, CONNECT AND IMPACT," the motto of the TRANSPLANT DAYS community. Professor Guido Grossmann followed with an introduction to TRANSPLANT, outlining the program's purpose of enhancing the impact of fundamental plant science research through research transfer and scientific entrepreneurship.

HHU Chancellor, Dr. Martin Goch, emphasized the importance of research transfer for societal and economic impact, highlighting HHU's strategy to engage with the economy through entrepreneurship and industry collaborations, fostering an optimistic environment and enabling opportunities.

Professor Jan van den Berg (Scouting & Partnering R&D, BASF Nunhems; Professor of Plant Envirogenetics, Maastricht University) provided an example of his own inspiration and life trajectory through academic and industry collaboration working for BASF and the University of Maastricht. Professor van den Berg highlighted the importance of listening and understanding the value chain, the people, the rules of collaboration in industry and underscored the significance of public-private partnerships and the "triple helix" model in overcoming the "valley of death" in innovation.

Dr. Marcel van Verk (Vice-President, Crop Data Science, KeyGene N.V.; Guest Professor, Crop Data Science, HHU) shared the journey of KeyGene´s creation through a partnership among competitors to fund the development of a highly innovative company.  Professor van Verk discussed various concrete examples that illustrate the development and funding of "data" collaborations between academia and industry through collaborations between students, postdocs, and principal investigators from various universities around the world and KeyGene.

At the end of the event an interactive panel discussion explored strategies to improve communication and cooperation between academia and industry. The panel vividly provided experiences, advice and best practices for collaboration and cooperation from both the perspectives of early career researchers and industry, leaders, professors, offices of technology transfer and innovation managers.

The event provided a valuable opportunity for learning, connection, and impact, particularly for early career researchers and students from CEPLAS programs.

TRANSPLANT: Fueling Research Transfer in Plant Sciences

TRANSPLANT is a science community project designed to fuel research transfer in fundamental plant sciences. Researchers from HHU, UoC, and HSRW have joined forces to boost the socioeconomic impact of fundamental science, foster public-private partnerships between industry and universities, and stimulate an entrepreneurial spirit among scientists. TRANSPLANT is hosted within CEPLAS and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of NRW.   

The program's purpose is to facilitate communication, learning about research transfer, and connection among members, partners, and organizations within the CEPLAS ecosystem, while identifying opportunities to collaborate and enhance the impact of fundamental research in society.   

The next TRANSPLANT Days series in 2025 includes:   

• 2nd TRANSPLANT DAY: Supporting entrepreneurial scientists and science-basedstartups on May 15, 2025.
• 3rd TRANSPLANT DAY: Impacting society, farmers, and growers on July 10, 2025.   
• 4th TRANSPLANT DAY: Government, industry, and venture capital funding for research transfer on September 11, 2025 

The event drew over 60 participants, and attendees included representatives from the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) and its partner institutions: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, University of Cologne (UoC), the Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW), and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). The event also welcomed participants from the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) innovation ecosystem, including CEDUS (the Center for Entrepreneurship at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), Gateway (the start-up service at the University of Cologne), Bio NRW, BioRiver, and other organizations.