Groundbreaking ceremony for new technology and start-up centre at DESY
"The DESY Innovation Factory offers founders excellent conditions to bring new ideas from research into practice even faster"
A combined total of more than 8,500 square meters of workspace will be created in just three years of construction at two locations: the main site on the DESY campus and a second very close by in the Altona Innovation Park. Complex laboratories, offices, and open working environments will be built to optimally foster the flow and transfer of knowledge and technology from research to industry and society.
From 2027 onward, the DESY Innovation Factory will serve pre-founders, start-ups, and scale-ups, as well as partners from applied research and collaborations with industry as an innovation centre for life sciences, new materials, and quantum technologies. It will bolster a unique ecosystem in Germany in which these stakeholders can not only optimally develop their ideas, but also benefit from a wide range of networking, events, and advice.
“The DESY Innovation Factory offers founders excellent conditions to bring new ideas from research into practice even faster. In the heart of Science City, an important flagship for Hamburg's new future-oriented district and our science location is being created. It will bring together bright minds from science and business to work together on sustainable solutions for pressing issues of the future,” says Katharina Fegebank, Second Mayor of Hamburg and Senator of the Science, Research, Equality and Districts Authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
The centre targets research disciplines, sectors, and subjects that are particularly promising for the future of society: In the context of Life Sciences, these are active ingredient and vaccine research, medical technology, and diagnostics. In New Materials, the focus is on sustainable and intelligent materials that are particularly durable or efficient to use. Quantum Technologies focuses on modern forms of computing, sensor technology, and quantum materials.
“Research at the Hamburg site offers enormous potential for social progress: what is developed here has what it takes to make life better. The DESY Innovation Factory enables the transition from research to marketable solutions. It will become a workbench for innovation, where bright minds and creative entrepreneurs work together to find answers to the pressing questions of our time - for a sustainable future and innovation through technology,” says Melanie Leonhard, Senator for Economic Affairs and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
For DESY, the DESY Innovation Factory is a further milestone in its strategy to continuously develop the campus into a centre of deep-tech innovation. The globally unique large-scale research facilities and their specially trained staff will also increasingly benefit companies in the future in order to jointly develop cutting-edge products and technologies.
“By working closely together, research and industry can identify solutions to socially relevant challenges, for example in materials development or for the environment, more quickly and often more cost-effectively. With the DESY Innovation Factory, we offer the ideal environment for new deep-tech innovations,” says Arik Willner, DESY’s Chief Technology Officer.
“The DESY Innovation Factory will play a pivotal role in Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld and greatly expand Germany's potential as a science and technology location,” says Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors.
The DESY Innovation Factory already provides around 120 square meters of equipped experimental space in the Makerspace to validate product ideas and develop prototypes involving 3D printing, laser technology, mechanics, and electronics. This offer is currently being used by the first pre-foundation teams and start-ups and will be expanded significantly in the future with the DESY Innovation Factory. In this way, many founders and researchers will be able to exchange ideas across specialist boundaries and achieve crucial synergy effects.
The DESY Innovation Factory will be funded by grants from the federal government and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In addition, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is expected to provide further funding in 2025 and 2026 for the integration and accommodation of a centre to bundle activities in the field of quantum technologies and quantum computing. This centre aims to create a visible point of identification for Hamburg's quantum technology community and will bundle and drive forward future innovation and start-up projects in this field. The architectural firm “heinlewischer” from Berlin was awarded the contract for the planning of the DESY Innovation Factory on the campus.
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