Press Release

10/02/2025

Evaluation Report on the Innovation Alliance Baden-Württemberg Published

innBW institutes are a key asset for the state's innovative strength

Press release from innBW Innovation Alliance Baden-Württemberg

Leading experts from science and industry have evaluated the Innovation Alliance Baden-Württemberg (innBW) and its twelve institutes on behalf of the state government. The review focused on assessing the quality and success of innBW’s research and transfer work. In their final report, the experts highlight the institutes’ outstanding scientific performance and high relevance to the innovative strength of companies in Baden-Württemberg. With its application-oriented research, innBW has a leading position in key technology areas and supports the economy with tailor-made services for knowledge and technology transfer.

“By strengthening competitiveness—especially that of small and medium-sized enterprises in the region—the institutes of innBW are making a significant contribution to the development of Baden-Württemberg’s economic power,” the experts are convinced. As problem solvers and innovation drivers, the institutes fulfill an essential function for the economy in addition to conducting first-class preliminary research. The highly qualified staff and powerful infrastructure, which covers the entire value chain, are a “real USP”. The innBW institutes are a significant asset for Baden-Württemberg.

The final report uses numerous key figures to highlight the institutes’ proximity to the economy and customer orientation. In addition to cooperation in publicly funded projects, the transfer of knowledge, technology, and innovation at the innBW institutes primarily occurs through direct industry contracts.

For every publicly funded project, there are around seven direct orders from the business sector.

In 2023, the innBW institutes processed 5,513 orders from industry. Since 2017, the start of the evaluation period, there has been a 23.5 percent increase in industrial orders. Orders for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rose even more significantly, by 46 percent since 2017. For every publicly funded project, there are around seven direct industrial orders. “This illustrates the close links between the institutes and the needs of industry, especially SMEs, and demonstrates the institutes’ strong commitment to technology transfer,” says the expert commission.

At the same time, the transfer to the economy is also achieved to a large extent through the transfer of knowledge via minds. With science-based education and training of actors for tasks outside the science system, the innBW institutes are actively counteracting the shortage of skilled workers, according to the authors.

According to the expert commission, the enormous leverage effect achieved by the institutional funding of the institutes is particularly noteworthy. For every euro of basic funding from the state, the institutes generate 2.71 euros from publicly funded projects and 1.54 euros from commercial contracts – a level that sets standards for other research actors on this scale. A very high level of third-party funding per employee confirms the leverage effect once again.

Research excellence and transfer require adequate funding

The evaluators’ positive assessment currently comes at a highly challenging time, marked by significant political and economic uncertainties and tight public budgets. The changed conditions – primarily due to a substantial decline in the industry’s willingness to invest in research and development (R&D) and the resulting funding vacuum at the federal level, resulting from provisional budget management – have far-reaching consequences for the institutes.

There is a need for the state to rapidly adjust its innovation funding so that institutes remain viable for the future and can fulfill their role as thought leaders and essential research partners in Baden-Württemberg.

More than ever, the tense situation calls for the securing of sustainable financial structures and innovation-friendly framework conditions that provide tailored support for application-oriented R&D activities.

“We urgently need additional state funding for innBW joint projects to strengthen preliminary and independent research and expand transfer-oriented funding programs such as Invest BW,” demands Prof. Dr. Alfons Dehé, CEO of innBW.

“At the same time, the long-awaited adjustment of funding modalities for non-university research institutions financed by the federal and state governments must finally be implemented at the federal level. In the competition for the best ideas and R&D achievements for the state, equal funding conditions and equal access to funding programs should be a matter of course.”

According to the expert commission, the share of basic funding in the institutes’ budgets has in some cases reached a “subcritical level” due to past growth, which takes away the necessary leeway and massively restricts the possibilities for preliminary and independent research. The evaluators, therefore, unanimously and emphatically recommend an increase in basic funding, based on the institutional funding of comparable large-scale research institutions that are financed by federal and state governments.

About innBW

The Innovation Alliance Baden-Württemberg is an association of twelve non-university research institutes with a total of 1,500 employees. Its central task is to transfer research results into practical applications in close cooperation with industry. We develop new products, processes, services, and business models for and with companies. These enable new markets to be opened up far beyond the state’s borders, strengthening the state’s innovative strength and competitiveness.

A pressing concern is the focus on key technologies and fields of innovation that are crucial to the future of the economy in Baden-Württemberg. These include digital transformation, the development of sustainable energy technologies, personalized medicine, future mobility, Artificial Intelligence, and quantum technologies.

About the FZI

The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, with headquarters in Karlsruhe and a branch office in Berlin, is a non-profit institution for information technology application research and technology transfer. It delivers the latest scientific findings in information technology to companies and public institutions and qualifies individuals for academic and business careers or the leap into self-employment. Supervised by professors from various faculties, the research groups at the FZI develop interdisciplinary concepts, software, hardware, and system solutions for their clients and implement the solutions found as prototypes. The FZI House of Living Labs provides a unique research environment for application research. The FZI is an innovation partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and strategic partner of the German Informatics Society (GI).