10.09.2008
Winner of the Top Cluster Contest
The Federal Minister of Research and Education Annette Schavan announced the winners of the first round of the top cluster competition in Berlin on 2nd September 2008. The lucrative competition held by the Federal Ministry of Research and Education awards prize money to the total of €200 million. Two of the five winners from the first round are from the Rhine-Neckar region in the German Southwest. The two projects, Cell-based and molecular medicine (BioRN) and the Forum Organic Electronics, were selected from a total of 38 projects entered nationwide.
Forum Organic Electronics:
The goal of "Organic Electronics" is to further develop key technologies in various areas: Novel lighting systems based on organic light diodes (OLED), for example, are designed to reduce energy consumption by over 50%, highly-efficient solar cells used in the project organic photovoltaic are to achieve a significant reduction in CO2-emissions. Various working groups from the Universität Heidelberg are involved.
The Hochschule Mannheim is represented with a project focussing on the development of printing technology which allows electronic circuits to be applied straight onto packaging, labels and textiles. Further partners include the Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and the Universität Mannheim as well as mid-sized and large companies such as BASF SE, Freudenberg & Co., Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Roche Diagnostics GmbH and SAP AG.
Cell-based & molecular medicine (BioRN):
The focal point of the biotechnology cluster is the specific development of biopharmaceutical projects from their early phases to industrial maturity. At the same time, this cluster is to gather together scientific excellence in the areas of adult stem cells and gene regulation via non-coded sequences. Around 100 partners from industry, science and politics have joined together for this cause. The research group at the Hochschule Mannheim is working on the development of new medicine to fight cancer and is addressing innovative platform technologies for the most efficient and price-worthy development of medication. The Universität Heidelberg is represented with numerous working groups as is the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Moreover, high-ranking companies such as Roche, Merck, BASF and SAP are also involved together with approx. 30 smaller and mid-sized biotechnology companies.
The aim of the Contest is to identify and promote the best cluster strategies nationwide for top activities in industry and science. Researchers and companies should be given the opportunity to realise their ideas with the aid of specific partnerships and thus be even more attractive for investors and new talents.
More:
http://www.m-r-n.com/forumoe.0.html
http://www.m-r-n.com/biorn.0.html
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de
http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de
http://www.uni-mannheim.de
http://www.hs-mannheim.de
http://www.dkfz.de/de/index.html
http://www.embl.de
