BMWi Innovation Day 2019 and BIONNALE 2019

Berlin, 7th & 8th May 2019

The BMWi Innovation Day is an annual open-air trade fair, where companies and research organizations show the results of their ZIM funded projects. In previous years the event hosted about 300 exhibitors and 1,500 visitors from business, science and politics. The event offers firsthand information from successfully funded projects. Aside from this, visitors have the chance to meet new project partners, discuss new project ideas and find out more about available funding programs from a broad range of presentations presented on three stages.

In the “International Area,” various international networks and funding organizations from all participating network countries and bilateral cooperation partners have the opportunity to share their programs, among them the German-Canadian Centre for Innovation and Research (GCCIR). GCCIR Executive Director Katelyn Petersen and Manager Jonas Kuhn presented the Alberta-Europe Technology Collaboration Fund to participants of the event and introduced the economic landscape of Alberta and its potential for R&D technology collaborations. Accompanying the GCCIR to Innovation Day this year were three companies from Alberta: Ceapro, NanoSpeed Diagnostics, and Keystone Labs. Together with their German partners they presented their collaboration project results and showcased their jointly developed innovations.

The GCCIR delegation also had the opportunity to attend the BIONNALE 2019, an annual Life Sciences networking event in Berlin. It is the largest such event for Life Sciences in Germany, with over 900 participants. The day began with a tour of the Berlin Buch research campus and continued with presentations and networking in the Ludwig-Erhard-House, named after Ludwig Erhard, known in Germany as the “father” of social market economy and later Chancellor. This space offered the perfect venue for our Albertan companies to present their technologies and make valuable connections for potential new cooperation projects.

After the BIONNALE the Alberta companies attended a research site visit through Adlershof. Adlershof is a Technology Park in Berlin and one of the most successful high-technology locations in Germany. Founded in 1754 in the birthplace of German aviation, it is now a site for research and home to a number of Germany’s most prestigious research institutes, such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS and the Helmholtz-Centre Berlin. It also houses an impressive Synchrotron BESSY II within the Helmholtz-Centre.

BMWi Innovation Day in Berlin

Research site visit of Adlershof in Berlin

BIONNALE Life Sciences Conference in Berlin