The Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and neighboring areas are home to many of the world's leading companies in various industries (chemicals, software, mechanical engineering) and an outstanding range of universities in all academic fields. With the founding of InnovationLab GmbH as a shareholder, these organizations have developed their cooperation from a selective and bilateral collaboration to a joint, topic-oriented research platform on an equal footing. The aim is to use joint research activities involving all players along the value chain to transform the results of basic scientific research into marketable products more quickly, while market-related issues and industrial research results pose interesting challenges for science.

InnovationLab GmbH is owned by science and industry. InnovationLab GmbH itself holds 11%. The shareholders are the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT (21% *) and Heidelberg University (21% *) as well as the companies BASF SE (22% *), Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (20% *) and SAP SE (5% *).

*Abweichungen <1% auf Anfrage

The aim of iL is to establish a research and development platform to which shareholders and partners from inside and outside the region contribute resources and in which they conduct joint research on clearly defined topics. iL is responsible for managing the platform. Furthermore, iL brings shareholders and partners together for specific projects on site and works with them to define topics for training and further education. In addition, the focus is on the commercialization of functional, printed products. iL offers a complete solution from a single source. Since its foundation, iL has been working on the development of the future technology of printed and organic electronics. In 2008, iL successfully took part in the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research's Leading-Edge Cluster Competition with the topic of organic electronics. Based on the results from organic electronics, further research and application areas in the fields of energy, environment and health are being developed. Another goal of iL is to transform inventions into marketable products. The combination of its own and specific expertise from various partners enables InnovationLab to accompany the entire process of a product "from Lab to Fab". iL is a unique partner for the development and commercialization of processes and systems for printed electronic structures, circuits and components, accompanying customers from laboratory to industrial scale.

With comprehensive interdisciplinary know-how and state-of-the-art infrastructure, iL supports customers throughout the entire product development process. iL advises, develops and produces from a single source.

iL serves science and industry as a joint platform on which the defined research topics are processed holistically along the value chain. On the one hand, findings from basic research provide impetus for applications, while on the other, the needs of existing applications promote basic research. This allows synergies to be exploited and expertise to be pooled.

Intensive and targeted cooperation between companies and universities significantly improves the speed at which new technologies and products are developed, thus consolidating or achieving technological leadership.

The players cooperating on the iL platform are among the international leaders, are global leaders in their respective fields and contribute their strengths to the joint activities.

🟧 For industry, iL offers the opportunity to work with leading scientists to drive forward innovation projects that are not possible in day-to-day business and to integrate them back into the company if required. In addition, iL accompanies partners throughout the entire process of a product, from laboratory scale to production.

🟧 iL enables science to commercialize inventions with the support of industry partners who have the relevant market knowledge and access.

With its approach of networking science and business in a targeted manner, InnovationLab GmbH supports the innovative strength of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and Germany, creates a dynamic for innovation and the establishment of new companies, thereby securing growth, employment and prosperity.