Zeil: “Success model of ESA BIC Oberpfaffenhofen is extended to Nuremberg and Berchtesgaden”

MUNICH With the opening of the Nuremberg and Berchtesgadener Land branch offices, the ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Oberpfaffenhofen has been expanded into ESA BIC Bavaria. “With this expansion, we are stepping up our current involvement in ESA BIC from Euro 2.1 million to a total of Euro 3.25 million. In this way, we will be supporting a total of 70 start-ups at the three Bavarian locations up until the end of 2013”, commented Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Zeil. In the spring of 2011, Martin Zeil, Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director-General of the European Space Organisation (ESA), and Thorsten Rudolph, Managing Director of Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO), had already decided to expand the incubation centre.

The Nuremberg branch office of ESA BIC Bavaria will be implemented under the responsibility of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) and the Sparkasse Nürnberg savings bank. The largest Fraunhofer Institute with a staff of 750 employees gained worldwide recognition for the development of the MP3 and MPEG 4 AAC audio encoding formats. “Start-ups that opt for the ESA BIC Nuremberg branch office can immediately benefit from the broad spectrum of competencies of the Institute”, Zeil underscored. The range covers such sectors as navigation, logistics, digital broadcasting and multimedia as well as communications and imaging systems.

The local business development association Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Berchtesgadener Land and the savings bank Sparkasse Berchtesgadener Land were acquired as partners for the Berchtesgadener Land branch office of ESA BIC Bavaria. “The companies there can benefit enormously from ‘Initiative Satellite Navigation Berchtesgadener Land’ – a network promoting innovative navigation solutions. But the well-established infrastructure such as the Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE) is also a decisive asset”, the Economics Minister stressed.

“We have succeeded in winning outstanding partners to coordinate our two branch offices”, explained AZO Managing Director Thorsten Rudolph at the kick-off events. Within a very short period of time, Bavaria’s ESA BIC has therefore developed into the largest of the six current locations – Darmstadt, Harwell (Great Britain), Noordwijk (Netherlands) Frascati (Italy), Redu (Belgium). “This is a great success and a fitting reward for the hard work invested up to now by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen”, underlined Zeil.

Space infrastructures, such as the future Galileo satellite navigation system or earth observation and communications satellites, as well as numerous space technologies offer enormous economic potential. That is why the Ministry of Economic Affairs has for years been backing innovative young companies that put such technologies into marketable products. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs has been supporting ESA BIC Oberpfaffenhofen since August 2009, with the participation of ESA, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the local bank Kreissparkasse München Starnberg Ebersberg. By adding the Nuremberg and Berchtesgadener Land branch offices, the State of Bavaria is stepping up its commitment to the commercial use of space technologies and sees ESA BIC as an ideal programme for continuing to spark off the success stories of Bavarian start-ups.

Source: SWMWIVT

Pressnumber: 47/12