Leading-Edge Cluster Competition

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The top cluster competition is a competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , as a result of which the selected clusters are publicly funded.

Clusters connect companies, universities, research institutions and other actors in a region. They pool forces and create synergies for research and innovation.

So far there have been three rounds of the competition (as of November 2015), in which five clusters were recognized as top clusters and each received up to 40 million euros in funding over a period of five years. In total, the 15 top clusters funded will receive 600 million euros. The clusters had to convince a jury with their strategic concepts, their performance and the significant financial involvement of business and private investors.

In addition to the Excellence Initiative and the Pact for Research and Innovation, the top cluster competition is the third major measure of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to strengthen the efficiency of the German science system and to make Germany attractive as a science location.

Goal setting and promotion

In the funding guidelines, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has stipulated, among other things, the objectives and criteria of the competition as well as the framework conditions for funding.

The clusters should develop and secure an outstanding competence profile with a high level of innovation. International networking and cooperation is also an important goal; The settlement of foreign companies should also be encouraged. Another goal is the development and testing of innovative forms of cooperation between science and industry. The clusters are also intended to provide personnel for the region through targeted promotion of young talent and practical training.

The clusters describe in a strategy how they want to meet these goals. Projects of the cluster members that contribute significantly to the implementation of this strategy are then funded. As a rule, projects are funded by companies with 50% of the costs; the companies involved bring in their own financial resources in the amount of the state funding. University projects can be funded up to 100%.

The project management organization Jülich is responsible for the overarching supervision of the top cluster competition .

Funded leading-edge clusters

First round of competition

  • BioRN - The Biotechnology Cluster Cell-Based & Molecular Medicine in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (in the Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Darmstadt area)
  • Cool Silicon - Energy-efficient information and communication technologies (ICT) through micro- and nanotechnology in the region around Dresden, Chemnitz
  • Organic Electronics Forum in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region
  • Hamburg Aviation
  • Solarvalley Central Germany (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia)

Second round of competition

  • EfficiencyCluster LogistikRuhr
  • Medical Valley European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg
  • MicroTEC Southwest (Baden-Württemberg)
  • Munich Biotech Cluster - m4
  • Software clusters in the region around Darmstadt, Walldorf, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken

Third round of competition

  • BioEconomy Cluster in the Saxony-Anhalt region, Saxony
  • Cluster for individualized immune intervention (Ci3) in the Rhine-Main region (Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg)
  • Electromobility south-west in the Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Ulm region
  • it's OWL - Intelligent Technical Systems Ostwestfalen-Lippe , North Rhine-Westphalia
  • MAI Carbon for carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) in the three-city corner Munich - Augsburg - Ingolstadt

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guidelines for funding the "top cluster competition" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the High-Tech Strategy 2020 for Germany (3rd competition round). Federal Ministry of Education and Research, December 8, 2010, accessed on January 20, 2012 .