Startup Week Aachen 2026: Five Days of Founder Spirit
Startup Week Aachen 2026: Five Days of Founder Spirit Alongside Your Studies
From 6 to 10 July, Aachen once again becomes a stage for founders, and for anyone curious enough to simply drop in. For students at RWTH and FH Aachen, it’s one of the best opportunities all year to connect lecture-hall theory with real founding practice.
What is Startup Week Aachen?
Once a year, Startup Week Aachen brings together the founding energy of the entire region: RWTH, FH Aachen, Forschungszentrum Jülich, established companies and the local startup scene meet for five days.
The week is organised by digitalHUB Aachen e.V. together with numerous partners from academia, business and public administration, from RWTH Innovation to the IHK Aachen and the City of Aachen itself. The result is a packed programme of talks, workshops, networking formats and a large closing event, spread across the city and the surrounding region.
If you’ve ever wondered how an idea from your studies actually turns into a company, this is where you’ll find more answers in a few days than a whole semester of research could offer.
founders.festival
The high point of the week and its closing event at the same time: founders.festival brings founders, investors and the wider public together on a single day, with a stage programme, an exhibition area and plenty of room for spontaneous conversations.
Meet the Startups Euregio
A fixture of previous editions: young companies from the Euregio present themselves and show how a term paper or research project can grow into a viable business model.
Kickoff Event
The week traditionally opens by bringing everyone together, from first-year students with an early idea to experienced founders, and gives an overview of the full programme.
Startup Spirit Award
At the previous edition, this award honoured particularly bold and original founding projects from the region, a good indicator of which ideas are currently gaining traction in Aachen.
Why it’s worth attending as an RWTH or FH Aachen student
Startup Week isn’t just an industry gathering for companies that already exist. For students in particular, the programme offers very concrete links to their own path.
Real-world relevance for your thesis
If you’re planning an application-oriented bachelor’s or master’s thesis, you’ll find real problems from young companies here, often a good source of case studies or cooperation partners.
A network beyond university
Contacts with founders, mentors and support bodies such as the Gründungszentrum Aachen rarely form in a lecture hall, but they do here.
Discovering a genuine career alternative
Not everyone wants a classic employee role after graduating. The week shows what a founding path out of Aachen can concretely look like.
Free access to highly practical formats
Many parts of the programme are open and free of charge for students, a low-threshold way into the topic of founding a business.
Dates & Registration
Startup Week Aachen 2026 runs from 6 to 10 July. The full programme and registration for individual formats are available directly from the organiser.
Your business plan, pitch deck or thesis in good hands
Whether academic rigour or an entrepreneurial venture, we support you with proofreading, specialist proofreading and personal mentoring throughout your studies.
See you at Startup Week, or in our next „Studying in Aachen“ post.
