Entrepreneurship

TU Dresden: Strong Patent Portfolio and Significant Innovative Capacity – TU Dresden Among Europe’s Top Innovation Drivers

September 11, 2026. In the ranking of the 30 universities with the most disruptive patents, the Technical University of Dresden (TUD)—with a total of 1,600 patent applications, 62 of which are so-called disruptive patents—ranks first nationwide and seventh in Europe. This is shown by a recent study published in the journal “Forschung & Lehre.” Disruptive patents are groundbreaking new inventions and technologies with the potential to set new standards. Noteworthy is the concentration described by the study’s authors: Although the 30 universities with the most patents account for only 23.36 percent of all university patents in Europe, they account for 34.66 percent of all disruptive patents. The study, titled “More Does Not Always Mean Disruptive,” examined a total of 82,324 patents from 1,605 European universities dating from 2000 to 2020.

Participants in the International TUD|excite Summer School. Photo: Matvii Lytvynenko

From Invention to Business Model: The International TUD|excite Summer School as a Practical Example

The fact that TUD not only researches innovation potential but also actively harnesses it is demonstrated, among other things, by the International TUD|excite Summer School, which took place in August in cooperation with the startup incubator boOst and the European university alliance EUTOPIA. During the program, around 30 early-career researchers worked in international, interdisciplinary teams on selected TUD patents. The goal is to develop new product ideas and business models based on real technologies and intellectual property rights—culminating in a final startup pitch.

Study author and academic director of the Summer School, Prof. Jörn Block, sees this as the exact point where research and practice converge: “A format like our Summer School goes a long way toward raising researchers’ awareness of entrepreneurship. It brings about a shift in perspective. Researchers are forced to consider what it takes to transform inventions and technologies into marketable products and then, potentially, to found companies. This is anything but trivial. The rules of the game are completely different.”

Background: What Makes a Patent Disruptive?

In the current study, the researchers distinguish between whether an invention merely continues an existing technological development (incremental) or whether it establishes a new technological path (disruptive).

This is measured using the so-called CD Index, which is based on citation patterns: Disruptive patents are cited particularly frequently by subsequent inventions—at the same time, the patents on which they are actually based lose significance because the new invention opens up a new line of development. A patent is considered disruptive if it ranks among the top five percent within its technology field and filing year. Of the more than 82,000 patents examined, only 4,512 ultimately met this criterion.

The authors emphasize: It is precisely these few patents that have a decisive impact on technological progress. Their universities are therefore of particular importance not only academically but also in terms of technology policy—as a starting point for new industries, spin-offs, and value creation that extend far beyond the individual invention.

About TUD|excite

The TUD|Center of Excellence for Innovation, Transfer, and Entrepreneurship (TUD|excite) brings together TU Dresden’s core activities related to knowledge and technology transfer, patent management, and spin-offs under one roof—from securing and commercializing intellectual property rights (excite|PATENTS) to translating research results into practical applications (excite|INNOVATE) and providing startup support (excite|STARTUP).

Study

Block, J.; Lampe, H.; Minkin, D. (2026): “More Doesn’t Always Mean Disruptive—Where Do Groundbreaking Inventions Emerge at Europe’s Universities?”, Forschung & Lehre, Issue 9/26, pp. 40–42.

– – – – –