The focus of the nationwide model project will be on expansion of the entire innovation chain geared toward AI, from the identification of start-up potentials in research to the targeted acceleration of the feasibility phase to an accelerator program on the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Campus Berlin. The integration of a strong industrial network in all innovation phases will be just as much a core element as the establishment of an AI academy for start-ups and stakeholders. The model project is being set up like a company and with company building approaches from the start. Science & Startups enables access to the most important research potential in Berlin.

The model project financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for four years is intended to promote the establishment of start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence in the federal capital. It is co-financed by the state of Berlin. The project is being carried out in close cooperation with the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), one of the beacons of nationwide AI research. As of 2022, the institute is to be permanently established as a national AI competence center.

Science & Startups is the alliance of start-up centers of the partner institutions of the Berlin University Alliance – the major Berlin universities Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Science & Startups supports science-based start-ups and promotes the creative innovation of science. By bundling the resources of the four major Berlin universities, the alliance creates a unique, internationally visible university start-up ecosystem with extensive services, 1,700 potential academic mentors from the member universities and almost 130,000 potential co-founders.