The German Capital Region’s rich R&D landscape is another decisive asset for investors. Berlin-Brandenburg features one of Europe’s highest concentrations of R&D facilities.
Concentration of R&D Facilities
Berlin-Brandenburg boasts seven universities, twenty-one institutes of technology, 250 private R&D institutes (twenty-one of which are on the “Blue List” compiled by Wissensgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, WGL), nine Fraunhofer institutes, eight Max-Planck institutes, seven HGF institutes (Herrmann von Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren), and more than a dozen federal research institutes. R&D is thus one of the region’s strengths and ranks amongst its most important growth factors. Moreover, Berlin-Brandenburg is backed with a long scientific tradition, as twenty-nine Nobel Prize winners were members of the Berlin universities (eleven for chemistry, ten for physics, seven for medicine, and one for literature).
Some 50,000 scientists work in Berlin-Brandenburg, around 23,000 of whom at universities and institutes of technology. Highly specialized scientific and research institutes are available to companies as cooperative partners.
Favorable Conditions for Young Entrepreneurs
Young entrepreneurs in technology-intensive industries benefit from particularly favorable conditions in the region: according to a recent study, Potsdam University and BTU Cottbus come second and tenth out of sixty-five German universities for their support to start-ups (Universität Regensburg, 2007).
Skilled Junior Employees
With approximately 180,000 students, the region’s universities and institutes of technology cater for skilled junior employees in virtually all industries, including biotechnology, aerospace and renewable energy. Some 19,000 graduates arrive on the job market each year.
Brandenburg is becoming increasingly popular as a place to study. The region’s institutes of technology and three universities (Potsdam, Cottbus and Frankfurt/Oder) record a real boom in demand and student numbers are at their peak (Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg).
A Winner in the “Zukunftsatlas” Study
The favorable macroeconomic environment contributes to the good position of Brandenburg in the “Zukunftsatlas” study recently performed by Prognos, a renowned Swiss research institute. Brandenburg is a winner in Eastern Germany and ranks among the country’s regions that enjoy an upward trend. In 2007, the situation was significantly better in ten of Brandenburg’s eighteen districts if compared to 2004. Potsdam, the capital of the region, leapt 133 places into the Top 20. Cottbus and Brandenburg on the Havel were also amongst the ten strongest climbers.
Innovative Networks
The innovative networks developed in the German Capital Region are major location assets. Some 1,500 innovative companies are operating in the region. Among them, more than one hundred leading international businesses play a decisive role in innovative networks as interfaces between R&D and industry.
Currently, eighteen networks supported according to the EU “Joint task for the improvement of regional economic structures” exist in Brandenburg’s key technologies, and further networks are in preparation. The members are innovative SMEs, major enterprises, universities, institutes of technology, private R&D institutes and economic institutions. Several networks cover the entire German Capital Region.
Intensive Technology Transfer
Brandenburg considerably developed the infrastructure available for technology transfer between R&D and industry. This infrastructure includes not only technology transfer bureaus run by universities, but also agencies that make research findings available to interested companies upon request.
The Brainshell patent marketing agency, for example, has been successfully marketing the R&D results from Brandenburg universities and institutes of technology since 2002. Every year, the research institutes communicate forty to fifty new inventions to the Agency for marketability assessment. About half of them are being patented and about one third of Brainshell’s patent portfolio has been licensed or sold to date. Nearly 40% of the patent users are Brandenburg-base companies.
Technology Centers
The forty-three technology centers and business incubators with a full range of services that operate in the region are another asset of Berlin-Brandenburg. No other German region features so many facilities of this kind. Some 550 companies with over 3,000 employees are operating in Brandenburg’s twenty-one technology centers and business incubators (www.tgbev.de).
Brandenburg Promotes Innovation
Brandenburg successfully promotes innovation. Between 2001 and 2006, the state-run ZAB agency supervised and supported 1,776 innovation projects. Consequently, innovative products and procedures have been developed and improved, and almost 3,000 jobs created.
Entrepreneurs in Brandenburg appreciate not only the technology support by the regional authorities, but also the availability of “innovation assistants”. Since the launch of the program in 1992, over 1,000 such assistants have already been promoted. A survey conducted by the ZAB agency revealed that 89% of the businesses polled retained their innovation assistants after termination of the state support, and that 43% even hired a second one.