Project overview

The “ReNET-EV” project is receiving total funding of around 1.5 million euros. “ReNET-EV” stands for “Regional Grid-Supporting Energy Networks in Industrial Estates (ReNET-EV)” and is developing concepts for cooperative energy systems in industrial estates in the Münsterland region and for a climate-friendly transition. The project will examine ten pilot sites in terms of their energy requirements, potential and infrastructure, and model them as digital twins in order to identify optimal supply concepts. In parallel, suitable cooperative incentive and operator structures are being conceptually developed to distribute the necessary investment costs and create incentives for the large-scale deployment of renewable energies. This is intended to enable businesses in industrial estates to coordinate their energy requirements and share generation facilities, storage systems and transmission lines. 

The project partners and funding amounts in detail: 

1. Wirtschaftsförderung Münster GmbH (project coordination): around 368,000 euros
2. FH Münster University of Applied Sciences: around €399,000
3. Kerith GmbH: around €368,000
4. Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft für den Kreis Borken mbH (WFG): around 92,000 euros
5. Wirtschaftsförderung Kreis Coesfeld GmbH (wfc): around 92,000 euros
6. Steinfurt Economic Development and Promotion Company Ltd (WESt): around €92,000
7. Warendorf District Economic Development Agency (gfw): around €92,000

The project is funded through the EU’s ERDF programme and will run until 30 June 2029.

The project team aims to inspire those interested in starting a business, as well as entrepreneurs, to embrace the issue of sustainability, encourage a shift in mindset, and support start-up ventures that contribute to the ecological transition.

Particular emphasis is placed on knowledge transfer and cooperation between academia and the start-up community.

During the project period, targeted initiatives in the field of ecological transformation will be implemented for the start-up community, for example:

Raising awareness of and motivating people towards ecologically sustainable start-ups using best-practice examples and information sharing
Interactive knowledge transfer by experts from academia and industry for (potential) ecologically sustainable start-ups
Networking events centred on the ecological transformation of start-up ideas and projects.
In addition to WESt, the project partners include Technologieförderung Münster GmbH, Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft für den Kreis Borken mbH, Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Kreis Coesfeld mbH, gfw – Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftsförderung im Kreis Warendorf mbH, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) North Westphalia, the Münster Chamber of Crafts and the Münster University of Applied Sciences. The lead partner is Münsterland e.V.

Other supporters include the University of Münster, the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences and TAFH Münster GmbH.

The project is funded through the EU’s ERDF programme and has a total budget of 1.26 million euros. It will run until 28 February 2027.

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The “DigiFaBs Digital Change Agents for Food and Beverage SMEs” project is funded by the EU’s Erasmus Partnerships for Innovation Alliances and coordinated by Münster University of Applied Sciences. The project brings together a consortium of 14 partners from 7 European regions. These include five higher education institutions, two vocational training institutions, four SMEs, a regional public body, a social partner and an NGO, all of whom are working to advance the food and beverage sector. The food and beverage industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the European Union.

In the food and beverage industry, more and more companies are turning to new technologies and seizing the opportunities offered by digitalisation. However, this poses major challenges for many small and medium-sized enterprises. This is where the new EU project comes in: DigiFABS – Responsible Dynamic Digital Change Agents for Food and Beverage SMEs. The aim of the project is to promote digital skills, resilience and innovation capabilities in SMEs within the food and beverage industry. WESt is a partner in this EU project, which is coordinated across Europe by Münster University of Applied Sciences.

Over the next three years, the project partners will work to develop an innovative programme to boost the level of digitalisation in companies within the food and beverage sector. At the heart of the project is close collaboration between universities and businesses. The project activities include a summer school for students, a bootcamp for teachers and companies, and a challenge. The first round of bootcamps and the subsequent challenge is planned for the second half of 2025. WESt’s role is to encourage regional companies from the food and beverage industry to take part in the bootcamps and the subsequent challenge. This will provide valuable impetus for digital transformation, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Steinfurt district. Furthermore, plans are in place to establish a European network of DigiFABS hubs, which will continue to operate after the DigiFABS project has concluded.

Find out more DigiFABS on LinkedIn DigiFABS on Instagram

An important investment in the future is to teach pupils at an early stage that they can tackle and resolve societal challenges through entrepreneurial action. This should motivate them to take action themselves and bring about positive change in their local communities.

We aim to raise awareness of social entrepreneurship among school pupils in the Steinfurt district, inspire them at an early stage with innovative, sustainable and social business models, and equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to bring their own ideas and projects to fruition. The project is thus designed to fill an important gap in the curriculum.

In the long term, “Zukunft unternehmen!” also contributes to attracting skilled workers and further developing the local start-up ecosystem. Through partnerships with regional businesses, start-ups and initiatives, the aim is to promote practical application and exchange with the business community.

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The abbreviation ‘ESG’ stands for ‘Environmental, Social and Governance’. These three pillars are used to assess the sustainability and ethical impact of a company or organisation.

• “Environment” concerns the way in which a company interacts with the natural environment, including its practices regarding environmental protection, resource use and climate change.

• “Social” refers to the company’s relationships with its employees, suppliers, customers and the communities in which it operates. This includes issues such as workers’ rights, social justice and contributions to the community.

• “Governance” encompasses the internal systems, practices and policies that determine how a company is managed and controlled. These include, among other things, corporate ethics, transparency, business practices and shareholder rights.

At EU level and in Germany, the ESG concept is embedded in several legal frameworks (including the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the German Sustainability Code (DNK)).

Companies that implement ESG practices benefit from numerous advantages in addition to legal and regulatory compliance:

• improved access to finance in the long term;

• market positioning and competitive advantage;

• Strengthening of the brand and customer trust;

• employee motivation and retention;

• operational efficiency (e.g. through energy savings, reduced resource consumption or waste reduction).

Planned activities and key outcomes:

1. Development of the ESG manager profile and an ESG curriculum;

2. Development and piloting of a vocational training course on ESG transformation in SMEs;

3. Development of a simulation game (app) to improve the skills and capabilities of business leaders in the field of ESG;

4. Production of a policy handbook with recommendations for policymakers to promote ESG practices and further disseminate the ESGM profile at EU level.

Note: This project is funded with the support of the European Union.

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Through the new ‘Resilient Regions’ initiative, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Construction (BMWSB) is supporting rural areas in increasing their resilience to crises. Against the backdrop of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression, new challenges are emerging for risk prevention and a region’s ability to adapt. The “Resilient Regions” initiative is helping a total of 11 selected regions across the country to develop and implement strategies to strengthen their resilience.

The focus areas of the regions vary greatly and are tailored to local conditions. The results of the pilot projects will subsequently be evaluated and made available to other regions.

With the project “Economic Resilience in the District of Steinfurt (WiReSt)”, the District of Steinfurt belongs to the select group of funded areas. Global risks and local short-term events such as strikes, traffic jams or road closures can lead to crises in the supply chain. Procuring materials then suddenly becomes a problem and sales markets collapse overnight. In such situations, companies are required to make ad hoc decisions. Sustainability aspects must be taken into account in this process. The shortage of skilled workers further complicates matters.

Small and medium-sized enterprises therefore face major challenges in the face of fragile supply chains. In day-to-day operations, they often lack the time and transparency required to engage in a detailed examination of long value chains.

WESt is carrying out the ‘WiReSt’ project in cooperation with Münster University of Applied Sciences. The plan is to develop an early warning system in the form of a digital platform. Furthermore, options for action regarding business adaptation strategies are to be generated and new areas of economic development support established.

The aim is to increase the adaptability of the local economy and to ensure effective crisis prevention.

Being selected as a model region represents a genuine opportunity for the Steinfurt district and its local businesses to achieve sustainable stability and economic strength, serving as a role model for other regions. 

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The Steinfurt district is highly attractive to companies in the logistics sector due to its location and favourable socio-economic conditions. This is clearly evident in the growing demand for space from freight forwarders and logistics service providers. However, these plans by logistics companies to set up or expand their operations rarely receive a positive response from politicians and the local authorities. The high land consumption, the emissions associated with transport, and a low density of jobs compared to other sectors of the economy all work against these companies.

Nevertheless, the logistics sector fulfils public service functions and is essential to the functioning of other sectors. Against this backdrop, the question arises as to how a sustainable settlement policy for logistics uses can be implemented, one that also coordinates and balances the differing interests of the municipalities involved. And this is precisely where Logist.Plus comes in: how can the interests of the municipalities be reconciled with the land requirements of the logistics sector and sustainability goals?

As part of the Logist.Plus project, a consortium of eight partner institutions from academia, local authorities and the business sector is developing innovative tools, methods and processes to reduce soil sealing and competition for land use. To this end, the second year of the project focused particularly on discussing the current situation in the local authorities.

“The numerous municipal interviews and workshops we conducted for data collection and analysis clearly reveal a predominant problem in the Steinfurt district: a high volume of commercial land enquiries and a shortage of available land. This is where Logist.Plus comes in, and we aim to develop tailor-made solutions,” said the responsible WESt staff member. The solutions could then be characterised by cooperation within regional networks, multifunctional and resource-efficient land use, or ecological optimisation of site selection, use and design.

As part of the project, a guide for logistics companies was also produced, offering design recommendations regarding the sustainable development of commercial sites.

Guidance for logistics companies Design recommendations for sustainable commercial land development

Find out more Osnabrück/Steinfurt Logistics Working Group

The current funding project will close the remaining gaps in the fibre-optic network in Emsdetten and ensure that fibre-optic connections are provided right up to homes and businesses (FTTH / Fibre to the Home). Federal funding is provided on the basis of the funding guideline “Funding to support the gigabit expansion of telecommunications networks in the Federal Republic of Germany” and the state guideline on co-financing of the federal programme dated 18 October 2023. Under these guidelines, all addresses that are not reliably supplied with a download speed of at least 100 Mbit/s are eligible for funding.

The milestones:

17 August 2021 – Completion of market survey to determine the coverage area: identification of 305 addresses with a download speed of less than 100 Mbit/s

5 January 2022 – Initial application submitted to the federal government

13 June 2022 – Provisional grant notification from the federal government

3 August 2022 – Launch of the tender for telecommunications providers

24 November 2022 – Approval by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for early commencement of works

8 December 2022 – Contract awarded to Stadtwerke Emsdetten

2 March 2023 – Notification of early commencement of construction without affecting funding

20 March 2023 – Start of construction work

24 April 2023 – Final application submitted to the federal government

8 December 2023 – Final funding approval from the federal government and finalisation of the co-financing application to the state

22 January 2024 – Final co-financing decision by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

30 September 2024 – Expected completion of construction work / project completion

The current project progress, an availability check, information on the service offering and the terms and conditions for end customers can be found on the project website of the service provider TKRZ.