Innovation is the key to success

While companies of course establish in traditional economic sectors, this is much more the case in the areas of the technologies of the future such as information, communication, nano- and biotechnology, have taken the place of coal and steel in Saarland. All of these new technologies are strong forces contributing to the structural change in Saarland.

New technologies

The continually expanding network between business and research gives young talented professionals the possibility to put their profound knowledge into practice. These intellectual resources and the resulting spin-off companies are the spearheads of structural change.

Saarbrücken also is the world’s computer science capital

Our universities are the pacemakers of structural change and the home of experts in future technologies. We support renowned institutions in the areas of information, nano- and biotechnology, medical and production engineering. It was not without reason that the Max- Planck-Society decided to house also its second Institute for Computer Science – the only two in all of Germany - in Saarbrücken. Also unique within Germany: The expertise represented by the IT competence centre, which was founded in 2004. Its aim is to set up and coordinate a network of IT-competence in Saarland. The success of these institutions is already measurable in form of the prizes our academics gained over the past years, e.g. the Prize of the German President (Zukunftspreis des Bundespräsidenten), the Leibniz-Prize (Leibniz-Preis) or the Philip-Morris Prize for Science (Philip-Morris-Forschungspreis), only to mention a few. Further, the 40 percent of growth in Saarland’s IT sector from 1999 to 2003, compared to only one percent on the federal average, is outstanding. The IT-friendly climate led to a number of very successful and now renowned companies emerging in form of spin-offs from the Department of Computer Science at Saarland University, amongst others IDS Scheer and SAP.

Dynamic German Federal State

In light of the change towards technology and services, our state is facing new challenges. In order to master those challenges, we devised a new innovation strategy focusing on the growth clusters of tomorrow. Competences in the areas of business, science and education are assembled in technology-specific clusters, thereby creating an institutional network which can make use of potentials for innovation in "old" and "young" sectors. In addition, this strategy preserves and enhances a culture of innovation. Independent academics have assured that this approach is not only hot air: In a ranking of the Institute for the German Economy and the Initiative for Social Market Economy, Saarland came first for being the most dynamic of all German Federal States.