Promoting responsible corporate social behaviour that adds value for society is the key objective of the Impact Factory Duisburg. The scholarship programme targets young entrepreneurs whose business concept focuses on social, ecological or humane issues. The scholarship initiative was developed by Anthropia gGmbH and is headquartered on the premises of Franz Haniel und Cie. GmbH in Duisburg-Ruhrort. It is supported by the Wilo-Foundation and the Paritätische NRW welfare organisation as programme partners. The founding partners include Haniel, the Beisheim Foundation and the KfW Foundation.

The participating start-up businesses receive support that is tailored to their needs. The Create-up kick-off programme is for young entrepreneurs that are still in the initial stages of starting their own business. These entrepreneurs, who have developed a solution that offers great potential for solving a highly relevant social problem, receive intensive support so they can translate their idea into a viable business model. The Scale-up programme targets young entrepreneurs with more experience who have successfully tested their business model and have already developed a prototype. Social start-ups that have already gathered active experience with their company become Fellows of the programme, receiving targeted support and access to network partners.  At the same time, they support junior entrepreneurs who are still in the first phase of creating a business.

Anthropia gGmbH, Duisburg was founded in 2019 and wants to connect people by creating an action space for lateral, out-of-the box thinkers who want to tackle and solve the social problems of today, and providing opportunities for inspirational networking, co-working activities and lively formats enabling collaborative solutions. Together with various partner organisations, Anthropia gGmbH, Duisburg hosted the Impact Factory in spring of 2019, a follow-up event to the Social Impact Lab Duisburg and an innovation hub for social entrepreneurs.