The "Organic Electronics Forum" is one of two top clusters in the MRN. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) distinguished the cluster in the autumn of 2008 as the winner of the leading-edge cluster competition. The award also carries with it funding for research projects amounting to approximately 40 million euros spread over a period of five years. The cluster brings together scientific excellence and business power to implement the innovation and growth potential of the technology of the future, organic electronics.
It is a co-operation network currently comprising three DAX companies, eight international major enterprises, six small and medium-sized companies, as well as nine research establishments and institutes of further education, among them two elite universities. This form of co-operation is unique world-wide.
The central institution of the leading BMBF cluster "Organic Electronics Forum" is InnovationLab GmbH (iL) in Heidelberg. Research projects, such as those concerned with the development of semi-transparent organic solar cells or organic sensors for use in medicine, are driven forward under its umbrella. iL's objective is to achieve cross-discipline co-operation and to pool the expertise of more than 20 companies and research establishments. The partners cover the entire value added chain from the investigation of new materials through to designing components and marketing applications. The focus of these activities is aimed at co-operative research, the transformation of inventions into marketable products and training the next generations of scientists. iL is supported by the universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim together with the companies BASF SE, Merck KGaA, Freudenberg & Co. KG, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH and SAP AG.
Visit innovationlab.de for more details.
