AGIT LOOKS BACK ON 2008
[BIZ/GOV: Aachen, April 23] AGIT could look back on supporting 114 companies in their development in the past year. This meant finance in 20 cases, assistance with innovation with 94, and in the context of the federal SIGNO program it also helped with product protection and patents. The AGIT is one of the founders of this SIGNO network, which used to be called INSTI, and a partner for the Aachen region. They are proud of their quality and quantity assessment in the area of innovation and in a federal ranking of all partners they achieved fifth place. The ranking was carried out by the institute for the German economy in Cologne under contract to the federal ministry, and 45 institutions are members of the network. 2008 saw 15 new businesses at the technology center on the Europaplatz in Aachen and two at the medical technology center and the demand for space in both places was a lot greater. At the end of 2008, 89 firms were at the technology center and 25 at the medical technology center. The medical technology center had an occupancy rate of 97%. The technology center, as a whole, had occupancy level of 95% and the medical technology an average of 94% in 2007 and went up to 99% in 2008. The number of those employed in the firms in the centers rose in 2008 to 5,240. There were contacts with investors in 2008, 22 were interested in particular areas, geographical information systems played a leading role, with interest coming from Germany and Europe, but 15.3% from Asia and 10.2% from North America. And, in terms of location, 19% were from the life sciences and logistics and 15% from energy and environmental technology, trade came next with 14%, modern materials 12%, and other branches included IT services, engineering and measurements and control technology. Charles Vögele from Switzerland and Nuvo Research from Canada were interesting new developments; and, in May, a cooperative agreement for to market the region was signed with China at the Aachen-China office in Ning-Po. More than 40 Chinese businesses were contacted on the basis of interest in the area. An important instrument for location marketing was the Euroregional information service, EIS, which provides statistics. Various sources of funding were available from the state of North-Rhine Westphalia in the EFRD-II EU program and from cluster development with its focus in automotive and rail technology; life sciences and IT were also of interest. There was the development in sustainable energy, energy and climate control, health sciences, logistics, the use of the wood economy and tourism too, of course. Following developments in China, there are also ongoing talks with India and in the autumn of 2009 a new news magazine will be produced which will enable us to get back up to date again.
AGIT achieved considerable success in 2008. It advised 70 start-up companies and 25 technology-based companies were set up in the region. ‘In terms of the business plans, these would produce 502 jobs which is almost four times as many as were produced the year before,’ said AGIT’s chief, Dr Helmut Greif. Most start ups, 32% of them, offered technological services such as prototype development, research or engineering services. 20% are in the life sciences and production technology, 12% in the IT and automotive branch and 4% in new materials.
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