Advantage cooperation
Adlershof as a functioning IT network
Berlin is one of Europe's prime IT-locations. In Adlershof alone there are about eighty companies working in IT and media. They profit from their contacts with science and trade partners and from a wide range of offered floor space.
“Whoever still thinks that computer and software specialists work in a cave, set up their company in their dad’s garage, and don’t care where they’re based, should think again. Besides good traffic links, high priority is also given to integration in a functioning IT network,” explained Susann Niemeyer, Head of the IT and Media Center at WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH. Adlershof is an excellent location for these requirements and is now home to such major players on the sector like the cryptography specialists Rohde & Schwarz but also many smaller companies. In total, this location provides work for about 600 people on the IT and communications sectors.
“It is crucial that companies find partners for cooperation here,” she stressed. In the science fields, these are chiefly the departments of Humboldt-Universität, and not only for IT and mathematics: “The Department of Psychology is a key partner in the field of user friendliness, whereas the Geography Department researches geomatics engineering and geodata processing,” explained Niemeyer.
Also supporting a move to Adlershof is the adequate offer of suitable floor space. For instance, there are three IT and Media Centers (ZIM), with the most recent, ZIM 3, inaugurated in 2011 at Am Studio 2. This still offers about 2,500 square metres of rented floor space to new companies. These companies must be no older than five years and need no more than 250 square metres. In the autumn of 2013, Susann Niemeyer will be offering a further 2,500 square metres at ZIM 2 at Albert-Einstein-Straße; this space will become available when the Helmholtz Zentrum relocates.
Adlershof is no longer home to the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST, which last year merged with the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS and whose employees are now researching in Charlottenburg. This, however, does not mean under any circumstances an end to cooperation, as Susann Niemeyer stresses. This is also confirmed by Henning Köhler, Head of Corporate Communications at FOKUS, who explained that there will be further joint projects with technology companies in Adlershof – “also in the name of FOKUS”.
In any case Susann Niemeyer banks on regional networking. WISTA-MANAGEMENT is a member of SIBB e.V. ICT & Digital Business Association Berlin-Brandenburg and Partner of the log.in Berlin campaign, which aims to promote Berlin’s IT-competence nationwide as well as internationally.
Adlershof’s focus is on six main fields of activity – ambient intelligence (technology for people), multimedia, traffic and logistics, security technologies, production technologies, and ITC in health care. All correspond exactly to the high tech strategy pursued by Fraunhofer.
By Christian Hunziker for Adlershof Special