Champions of innovation
Where do the most innovations come from? In Germany there are four hot spots you need to know about.
The most innovative company: Robert Bosch
It isn’t a car manufacturer or a mechanical engineering company. The most innovative German enterprise is a supplier of car components: Robert Bosch. In 2018 the technology group in Stuttgart registered precisely 4,230 patents at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, and that puts it firmly in first place. Bosch has 69,500 employees working in research and development. And Bosch technology can be found in almost every car in the world. Colleagues at Bosch are currently working under high pressure on alternatives to the combustion engine.
The most innovative universities: TU9
The alliance of the nine leading universities of technology is educating innovative minds of the future. In Aachen, Berlin, Braunschweig, Darmstadt, Dresden, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Munich and Stuttgart almost 300,000 students are currently studying the foundations of the engineering sciences. In addition to this, the TU9 universities are promoting top-notch research: at the moment they are responsible for 21 of today’s 57 clusters of excellence for research into technology for the future.
I can see hardly any difference to the Silicon Valley.
The most innovative research institutes: Fraunhofer Society
More than 26,600 employees at the Fraunhofer Society are working to transform research results into marketable products and services. The successful inventions range from the airbag to mp3 technology, from white LED to natural rubber from dandelions. As a result the Fraunhofer Society was named among the Top 100 Global Innovators in 2018 for the sixth time.
The most innovative research centre: DFKI
The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) was founded 30 years ago in Kaiserlautern. This far-sighted decision has paid off. Today, at the height of interest in artificial intelligence, the DFKI is an international beacon. “I can see hardly any difference to Silicon Valley,” says Professor Jana Koehler, who has headed the research centre since February 2019. More than 1,000 people are currently working here on over 250 research projects. The federal government is planning rapid increases in the near future.
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