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Heidelberg is calling for life sciences start-ups

As a dominant part of southern Germany’s life-science industry hub, Heidelberg will soon have a life-science startup incubator of its own. BioLabs, the premier US network of managed co-working lab space, will open its first German branch in the Heidelberg Innovation Park (hip) south of Heidelberg’s city centre. On August 16, representatives of city and state governments, BioLabs and the life-science industry celebrated the Heidelberg BioLabs groundbreaking.

The preparation for the launch of BioLabs Heidelberg has been spearheaded by BioRN, the life-science cluster of the Rhine-Neckar region. After its opening, scheduled for late 2021, BioLabs Heidelberg will provide start-up companies with a perfectly managed environment in which they can grow fast. The concept behind BioLabs is to provide start-ups with wet laboratory and office space so that founders do not have to worry about finding a suitable location for their company or building a new laboratory from scratch – an obstacle that often prevents start-ups from being founded in the first place. This enables founders to fully focus on developing their business.

Sponsors and advisors from the pharmaceutical and life-science industries will provide support and guidance to young entrepreneurs. With this concept, BioLabs Heidelberg will attract international start-ups as well as local ones originating from the city’s renowned academic institutions.

“When we first planned the Heidelberg Innovation Park campus, we had partners like BioLabs in mind: They are innovative, they act in an international network and have a clear focus on a key future industry. With its mix of lab space, offices, and tailored advice, BioLabs will provide young life-science enterprises with exactly the environment they need in order to make their products and innovations a success. This is an offer that fits perfectly to Heidelberg as a center of excellent research”, stated Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner, Mayor of City of Heidelberg, while opening the Groundbreaking Ceremony.

“Launching this site is personally particularly gratifying; I have travelled a long road from my days as a student at the University to where I stand today. This has been quite a journey with a very satisfying end, or should we say beginning! The entire Biolabs Global team and I are delighted to be joining this dynamic ecosystem, a leading center for biotech innovation and entrepreneurship in Germany”, said Johannes Frühauf, founder & Managing Director of BioLabs, and Heidelberg Alumnus.

“BioLabs will be a perfect addition to the Rhine-Neckar region: With strong support of the state of Baden-Württemberg, a new site for innovation will be built, the ‘Health & Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim’. Here, we will combine the region’s strong focus on life science and health, using this in an unprecedented way. Together, we will create an environment that will foster significant advances in cutting-edge research, start-up creation and innovation. I am convinced that BioLabs will have an important part in it”, said Theresia Bauer, Minister of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg.

“This co-working lab space concept helps enormously to develop the excellent basic research into application and thus into value creation for the region. In addition, it significantly increases the international visibility of Heidelberg as a cluster of excellence in biotechnology.”, added Andreas Kempff, Managing Director, Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) as co-partner of the Technology Park Heidelberg GmbH

„Biolabs is another great piece of puzzle enriching our Heidelberg Innovation Park, which not only sharpens its focus on biotech and IT with every new start-up, but also provides more and more attraction for other high performing enterprises and cooperations“, underlined Marc Massoth, Head of the Department for Economic Development and Science Heidelberg.

“The BioLabs project is at the center of BioRN’s mission, and we are glad to see those different stakeholders in our cluster support and believe in this important milestone.”, concluded Julia Schaft, Managing Director of BioRN.

About BioRN

BioRN is the science and industry cluster of the Rhine-Main-Neckar region around Heidelberg, one of Germany’s strongest biotech hubs. It is a non-profit network fostering health innovations and serving its members by creating a rich translational ecosystem as wellas promoting, representing, and connecting the regional innovation stakeholders. Our visionis to develop the region into a world-leading life science cluster attracting international investments and top global talent.

BioRN has more than 100 institutional members, including the top academic and research institutions, 8 global pharmaceutical companies, a large range of small and medium-sized enterprises bolstering the life science ecosystem as well as local government organizations and interest groups.

About BioLabs

BioLabs is a membership-based network of shared laboratory facilities located in key geographies with proven biotech innovation clusters. BioLabs offers beautifully designed coworking environments that pair fully equipped and supported lab, office, and event spaces with relevant programming and unparalleled access to capital and industry partners. These fertile, supportive ecosystems allow young companies to shift their focus from start-upoperations to experimentation and innovation so they can reach their scientific potential quickly and achieve business success. Companies can start with a single lab bench and scale-up as they grow. The expanding BioLabs and Affiliates US network of labs now comprises sites in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts; Durham, North Carolina; San Diego and Los Angeles, California; New York City; Princeton, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Dallas, TX (coming Fall 2021) and is developing additional domestic and international sites.

Website address: https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/heidelberg-calling-life-sciences-start-ups