Panel and Host of the recent Female Founders Lounge
Quantum Computing
Oliver Hasse as part of the panel at the opening of the tower at CIC nanoGUNE in Spain
Weekly Wrap-up: Highlights in week 6
Breakfast Edition of the Female Founders Lounge
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11, 2026, Science & Startups, together with AI NATION and the IHK Berlin, hosted a Female Founders Lounge. This time, the event took place in the morning as a “Breakfast Edition” under the theme “Building the Future – Women Shaping Responsible Tech Innovation.”
As always, the Lounge provided women from the startup, science, and industry sectors a dedicated space for networking and exchange. The event was enriched by panelists who have built distinguished careers in science: Tina Kluewer, Alexandra Begue, Dr. Jelena Ivanovska, and Dr. Adiba Maignan. Startup advisor and mentor Katja Brunner once again led the discussion as moderator.
Oliver Hasse travels to San Sebastián, Spain
Last week, Oliver Hasse, Managing Director (Deputy) of HI, traveled to San Sebastián, Spain, to attend the opening of the Quantum Tower at the CIC nanoGUNE research center. The Tower houses a unique infrastructure dedicated to the development of silicon-based quantum chips, marking a major milestone for the region’s deep-tech ambitions. As part of the opening ceremony, Oliver joined a panel discussion which concluded that while Europe possesses the scientific foundation necessary for innovation, it urgently needs more industry partners to engage with research projects at an earlier stage. “Europe’s innovation challenge is not about ideas – it’s about scaling them together,” Oliver summarized.
Status Meeting: “Innovative Materials and Processes for Quantum Systems” at Humboldt-Universität
At the end of last week, around 100 researchers gathered at the Erwin Schrödinger Center of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to exchange interim results from projects funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology, and Space under the initiative “Innovative Materials and Processes for Quantum Systems.”
The projects cover a broad spectrum of research topics, ranging from new processing techniques for materials used in cryogenic circuits for quantum computing to novel nonlinear optical materials for photonic chips used to control quantum systems. Dr. Gregor Pieplow opened the scientific exchange with a keynote on the research conducted by the junior research group DINOQuant. Within this framework, results from all 13 funded projects were presented, followed by an opportunity for networking.
