As Manuela Matz said "Many companies from the two regions of Mainz and Heidelberg are already working together across locations, for example in joint research projects in the field of biotechnology. As the Head of Economic Affairs in the city of Mainz, I am extremely pleased to be able to intensify the cross-regional exchange through our delegation visit to Heidelberg."
„Regional Clusters and Ecosystems rely on strong connections among innovation stakeholders from research, industry and government. Yet, cooperation with other innovative regions plays a crucial role as well in fostering health innovations.” said BioRN Managing Director Julia Schaft, during her welcome speech to the delegation.
For 25 Years, BioRN Cluster promotes, represents, and connects the regional innovation stakeholders, to develop the region into a world-leading life science cluster attracting international investments and top global talent.
Beside a strong ecosystem where connection and cooperation are constantly nurtured, physical space is essential for innovation and growth. The Technology Park Heidelberg was established in 1984, as the first Technology Park focused on biotechnology in Germany laying the foundation for the establishment of BioRN and success in the BioRegio competition in the mid 1990´s.
According to André Domin "It's great when you can meet the entire value chain on the campus during your lunchtime. Today we run 6 sites in Heidelberg and besides the specialized physical space our accelerator programs actively support knowledge-based entrepreneurs during their start-up journey.”
In the past years, the Technology Park further expanded in other areas of Heidelberg, including for example the EC and State co-financed “Business Development Center”, established within the Heidelberg Innovation Park (hip). The Technology Park in partnership with BioRN will additionally enable the opening of a BioLabs Heidelberg facility as part of the global BioLabs membership-based network of co-working space for startups founded by Johannes Fruehauf. He is also the Founder and President of LabCentral, a private/public partnership model for life science incubator space in Boston. BioLabs will offer premium on demand wet laboratories and office spaces to early-stage life-science startups. The staged opening is planned from December 2021 to early 2022.
About BioRN
BioRN is the science and industry cluster of the Rhine-Main-Neckar region around Heidelberg, one of Germany’s strongest biotech hubs. It is a non-profit network fostering health innovations and serving its members by creating a rich translational ecosystem as well as promoting, representing, and connecting the regional innovation stakeholders. Our vision is to develop the region into a world-leading life science cluster attracting international investments and top global talent.
BioRN has about 130 institutional members, including the top academic and research institutions, 10 global pharmaceutical companies, a large range of small and medium-sized enterprises bolstering the life science ecosystem as well as local government organizations and interest groups. www.biorn.org.
About the Technology Park Heidelberg GmbH
Heidelberg Technology Park was founded in 1984 by the city of Heidelberg and the Rhine-Neckar Chamber of Industry and Commerce, as the first science park in Germany with a life science focus. Through its steady growth in the fields of biotechnology, pharma technology, environmental technology, printed electronics, as well as IT, it has been able to expand into six locations. The goal of the Technology Park is to support the exchange between research and industry with, for example industry-specific accelerator programs, and support spin-offs from science with the necessary infrastructure. By working closely with internationally active partners such as EMBL, the DKFZ, the International Association of Science Parks, MPI, the Excellence Cluster Organic Electronics, as well as the University and its hospital, it offers local companies a large international network and intensive cooperation with academia and business. A new location, the Business Development Center with 7,000 m² at the Heidelberg Innovation Park, was opened in October 2019. In April 2020 Heidelberg Technology Park together with the business initiative Baden-Württemberg, Connected e.V. (bwcon), and UC Berkeley launched the KI-Lab Kurpfalz. The initiative aims to support entrepreneurs by integrating AI applications in their research & development, production and marketing.
Media contacts
Dr. Annalisa Zuccotti
BioRN Cluster Management GmbH
az@biorn.org
Dr. Elke Matuschek
Technology Park Heidelberg GmbH
e.matuschek@kompass-pr.de