Jena and Environs: a Fertile Climate for Science and Technology
For several centuries, Jena has provided a fertile climate for science and technology ,research and development. The famous German poet Schiller taught at the University of Jena, which was founded in 1558 and has a sold tradition in both the sciences and humanities. Goethe carried out his scientific experiments in the city. It was Carl Zeiss who made a major technological breakthrough leading to the economic exploitation of scientific results by setting up his first workshop in the city in 1846. With the help of Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe, he laid the cornerstone for the success of the optical and precision mechanics industries and the construction of scientific instruments for which Jena would become world famous.
Expertise in Industrial Production
Optics, precision mechanics and medical instruments have traditionally been the main industries in Jena. The city now has a population of almost 100,000; some 53 percent of the labor force in Jena produces 64 percent of the turnover of the firms in the city. Glass manufacture and pharmaceuticals are two other important industries.
The majority of the newly founded biotechnology companies in Jena have fewer than 50 employees; these new companies are engaged primarily in research and development. The registration of local companies in the stock market during the past three years have been of decisive importance for the economic growth of the Jena region. The capital flows entering Jena have been a shot in the arm for the entrepreneurial spirit in the city. Increasingly, the pace at which entrepreneurial ideas are translated into new companies is based on successful models such as Intershop AG, JENOPTIK AG, CyBio AG, Analytik Jena AG and Asclepion-Meditec AG. The region has gained new economic turbo-engines driving economic progress.
Expertise in Research and Development
Research and development in biotechnology has continued to sharpen its profile in the Jena region. In its role as a "melting pot", the Beutenberg Campus has made a major contribution to the collaboration between research teams working in biology, physics and medicine. With the location of the Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology and for Bio- and Geochemistry on the campus, as well as the relocation of the Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Mechanics run by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to the Beutenberg Campus, this site has taken on an importance extending far beyond the city of Jena and the German state of Thuringia.
We estimate that expenditures for research and development - with a focus on bioinstrumentation - made at and around the university (including the University of Applied Sciences) are around DM 200 million annually. Adding the growing volume of R&D carried out by industry in the region, we arrive at the impressive sum of about DM 250 million.
