More space for developments at a common location: The two-story office and laboratory building on the construction site of the Faculty of Engineering at the airfield is scheduled for completion by July 2024. Around 2,700 square meters of office space and 3,500 square meters for laboratories, a clean room and workshops are planned. The space requirements are already tremendous. The Hahn-Schickard Institute for Microanalysis Systems, newly founded in 2016, has now grown to over 100 employees.

Minister Dr. Hoffmeister-Kraut says, “Hahn-Schickard Freiburg, one of twelve institutes in the Innovationsallianz Baden-Württemberg, has undergone outstanding development in recent years and is now a beacon of business-related research in Baden-Württemberg. It is clear proof that the topic of ‘microsystem technology with a focus on the healthcare industry’ is exactly right. The new building offers optimal conditions for continuing this success story.”

In recent years, the research and development service provider Hahn-Schickard at the Freiburg site has contributed with its innovative strength to the creation of around 300 new high-tech jobs through seven spin-offs. Based on the LabDisk technology developed at Hahn-Schickard, for example, the medtech spin-off Spindiag was able to launch its SARS-CoV2-PCR rapid test system Rhonda at the end of 2020, or the biotech company Actome its first products for molecular analysis. The life science company Cytena, which was spun off in 2014 and has been under the BICO Group umbrella since 2019, received a job creation prize called the “Jobmotor 2021” award from the regional newspaper Badische Zeitung for its strong growth.

Minister Hoffmeister-Kraut was also able to see it for herself during her subsequent visit to Cytena today. “Spin-offs like Cytena are outstanding examples of the immense transfer potential of business-related research in Baden-Württemberg,” she emphasizes.

“We are pleased that in the foreseeable future we will no longer be spread over several locations, but will all be able to research and develop under one roof, while remaining in close proximity to the university. With the Freiburg Innovationszentrum (Innovation Center) next door and the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques across the street, we are still in the best of company,” says Professor Roland Zengerle, who heads Hahn-Schickard in Freiburg along with two other professors.

The building, designed by independent architects heinlewischer and planned by nps Bauprojektmanagement, will be equipped with a photovoltaic system capable of producing a 190 kW peak output. There will also be 11 charging stations with 22 charging points for e-mobility. A total of 40 million euros has been budgeted for the first construction phase, for which subsidies of 20 million euros from state funds and 16 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) have been applied for from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics, Labor and Housing. 4 million euros are slated for financing through a loan for Hahn-Schickard.