A Prime Location for Analytics

New competence-cluster in Adlershof

The initiative committee “Analytic City Adlershof” wants to connect on-site partners, science and business in the field of analytics and develop an internationally visible competence-cluster. First steps have already been taken.

Analytics is a field of growing importance: from searching for environmental pollutants or new materials to developing pharmaceutical agents – new analytic methods and devices are indispensable. There are around 100 firms and research institutions in Adlershof that are acclaimed experts in their fields. The problem: ”The expertise cluster 'Analytics' is in no way visible enough, it is only just being established, and even in Adlershof not yet everyone is familiar with it,“ says Christine Wedler, one of the managers of ASCA GmbH Applied Synthesis Chemistry Adlershof. ”This is an issue which is by no means trivial, because many very different methods are represented here.“ On site, facilities for material, environmental and process analytics as well as for biology, medicine and food chemistry can be found. Almost all analytical methods currently popular in chromatography, spectroscopy, surface and structural analysis, microscopy and special processes are represented.

Advertising locally who offers what on the site, increasing networking activities, and making one's expertise internationally visible are the aims of Analytic City Adlershof. For this purpose, the first Analytic-City-Forum was hosted in October 2013. Researchers and entrepreneurs presented their establishments and discussed the future profile of the analyticsnetwork and its professional focus. Among the participants were a dozen high-tech and analytics companies from Adlershof, but also Shimadzu Germany, the company KNAUER, and the industry association SPECTARIS. Moreover, renowned research facilities such as the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Helmholtz and Leibniz institutes, the Humboldt-University of Berlin (HU), and the University of Potsdam. ”The forum has made clear that analytics facilities are seeking increased cooperation, for instance in joint projects, but also with regard to machine utilization and exchange of ideas. Moreover, everybody is concerned with successfully marketing the analytical expertise available on the site”, explains Beate Mekiffer, project head of Analytic City for WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH. Wedler adds: ”A great many companies have their own analytical specialisation.“

But still too few on the site are aware that various analytical questions could be solved just around the corner. ”In the future, the network will enable finding somebody to talk to. And if Adlershof is perceived as a hot spot for analytics beyond the site, this might result in new customers”, says Wedler. Foundation for this will be an expanded internet presence which can be used by analytics experts to communicate and to post ads offering or seeking cooperation. Workshops, exhibitions and a test laboratory are also planned. ”A regular meet up and large analytics events that we want to host are being discussed. We are also very interested in expanding our Analytic City by attracting new, innovative firms,“ says Mekiffer.

The Adlershof companies will make a first joint appearance at this year's analytica in April, the international trade fair for instrumental analytics, laboratory technology and biotechnology in Munich. A first step towards presenting, as Mekiffer says, ”the concentrated expertise offered by the site“. Her long-term goal: ”Adlershof becoming synonymous worldwide with high skill in providing training and solutions in analytics.“

By Chris Löwer for Adlershof Special