From student research project to a disaster management start-up

The start-up inventied from Rockenhausen has founded a civil protection and disaster control company with the support of the start-up office at RPTU & HS Kaiserslautern 2021. As THW emergency services personnel, the team develops products for emergency services. We asked Lukas Kalnik and Jan Schellhaaß from inventied what motivated them to found the company and collaborate with RPTU.

Founding your own company is a big step. How did you find the courage to do it?

Jan Schellhaaß: It really is a big step and, as with many start-ups, there are ups and downs. But I'm glad that we took the path we did. It all started with a student research project when Lukas and I were studying industrial engineering at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences. It was about finding a practical solution to a problem for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), where we work on a voluntary basis. The result was a prototype for a trailer body that is used for rescue and recovery tasks. For example, when a house is in danger of collapsing. With the new trailer body, emergency crews can now transport all the materials required for rescue tasks, which was not possible before. Loading and unloading emergency materials is more ergonomic and time-efficient for emergency crews. This means they can get to the scene faster to save lives and livelihoods.

Lukas Kalnik: "It was a project close to our hearts for both of us. Above all, because our idea solves an acute practical problem in civil protection and disaster control. So I proudly posted the trailer body on Facebook without giving it much thought. At the time, we didn't think it would become something bigger. But the Facebook post triggered a positive response from the THW throughout Germany. It showed us that there was a need for disaster prevention solutions. That gave us the courage to make it official. With Markus Weidmann and Trang Lam, we brought two other volunteers from the THW with engineering expertise on board. And that's how inventied was born. We then made the trailer body ready for the market and named it "Vario-Load-Rescue".

If you want to set up a company like yours, where do you even start?

Jan Schellhaaß: To be honest, at the beginning we had no idea where to start. The contact with the start-up office at RPTU and Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences helped us all the more. When we told them about our idea, they immediately knew how they could support us. Katharina Neitzel, Natascha Möller and Bernhard Lorig advised us on setting up the company and put us in touch with relevant people.

Lukas Kalnik: We also received support in the bureaucratic process to apply for financial support from the EXIST funding program. This allowed us to dedicate ourselves 100% to our idea and we are now a start-up that can develop products by emergency services for emergency services.

And you are still closely connected to the RPTU...

Lukas Kalnik: When we had calls for student project work, we distributed them via various channels and contacts. One of these was the start-up office, which has an overview of the chairs at RPTU and Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences. The team then found a suitable match for us.

Jan Schellhaaß: For example, when we were still in the product development phase to make the Vario-Load-Rescue and other products for civil protection and disaster control ready for the market, we collaborated with the Mechanical Engineering department at RPTU in the form of a Master's thesis and several projects. Currently, the Business Studies and Economics department and Prof. Dr. Stefan Roth's marketing chair are supporting us with our marketing and sales strategy as part of a student research project.

Anna, you are studying business administration in your 10th semester at RPTU and are working with two other students on this student research project with inventied. How can we imagine the collaboration?

Anna Schröder: In our project, we are carrying out a target group analysis and investigating the characteristics of existing products and their potential areas of application. Our aim is to gain valuable insights in order to further improve the products and tap into new market potential. At the beginning, we had the opportunity to take an in-depth look at inventied's products and their special features in a workshop with short presentations by inventied and the chair. We particularly enjoyed that. It also enabled us to learn more about industrial goods markets and market research processes. The direct exchange with the founding team really helped us to develop a better understanding of our goals and prepare us well for the tasks ahead.

Marcel, you are leading the student research project as a research assistant at the Chair of Marketing. What is special about this project?

Marcel Mallach: What is particularly exciting about this case is that it not only has a real and at the same time highly socially relevant reference. It also enables the transfer of theoretical knowledge into practice. Disaster prevention requires interdisciplinary approaches and creative solutions - as the recent severe weather disasters in neighboring Saarland and other regions have impressively demonstrated. Such events make it clear how urgently innovations are needed in disaster prevention and how relevant this topic has become in our everyday lives. By collaborating with a start-up like inventied, we as a department have the opportunity to put our scientific expertise into practice. At the same time, we support students in applying their academic knowledge directly to concrete problems. Such projects show that university research does not remain in an ivory tower, but actively contributes to overcoming real challenges.

What's next for inventied? What can we expect from you in civil protection and disaster control?

Lukas Kalnik: Our vision is to improve civil protection and disaster management worldwide. Disaster prevention means, for example, adapting to and also preventing the consequences of natural disasters. That's why we are particularly proud that we received the highest government award in climate protection this year for our innovation platform Co-invent, the Blue Compass from the Federal Environment Agency. The platform enables emergency services from all over Germany to submit their practical ideas for disaster prevention. We then implement these together. Several great products have already been created. Co-invent and the award make it clear how important cooperation and exchange with clever, innovative minds is. We want to expand this, whether with inventors from the disaster control sector or through research work.

Jan Schellhaaß: We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the start-up office and the chairs at RPTU for their support so far. We look forward to continuing to work with the existing departments and others! The results have brought us exciting insights and it helps immensely to look at civil protection from different perspectives. So if you also find the topic of civil protection and disaster control exciting, please get in touch with us and we'll see how we can come together.