We are the Innovation-Alliance Baden-Württemberg

The institutes of the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Alliance cover a broad thematic spectrum. Each institute has its own thematic focus and a proven competence profile. They stand for cutting-edge research and scientific excellence in the key future fields relevant to the state. The institutes understand the needs of companies, especially SMEs and start-ups, like few other actors do.

DITF – German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf

  • Denkendorf

fem – Research Institute for Precious Metals and Metal Chemistry

  • Schwäbisch Gmünd

FKFS – Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines Stuttgart

  • Stuttgart

FZI – Research Center for Information Technology

  • Karlsruhe

Hahn-Schickard

  • Stuttgart
  • Villingen-Schwenningen
  • Freiburg

ILM – Institute for Laser Technology in Medicine and Measurement Technique

  • Ulm

IMS CHIPS – Institut für Mikroelektronik Stuttgart

  • Stuttgart

NMI – Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen

  • Reutlingen

ZSW – Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg

  • Stuttgart
  • Ulm
Discover our Institutes

Our history

The innBW institutes have been funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg for many years. This funding is a central component of the SME Promotion Act (MFG) in Baden-Württemberg. Through the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor, and Tourism (WM), the institutes receive targeted financing to maintain their excellent infrastructure, provide planning security, and closely network science with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The origins of institutional funding for industry-oriented institutes date back to the 1970s and 1980s. Even then, the state of Baden-Württemberg recognized that smaller, legally independent institutes (such as NMI Reutlingen or the Hahn-Schickard Society) needed a reliable financial basis to conduct application-oriented preliminary research for the regional SME sector.

With the professional brand formation of innBW in 2011, the institutes also consolidated their competencies organizationally under a common umbrella. Since then, innBW has represented the shared interests of its members, increased the visibility of industry-oriented research, and promoted collaboration between science and industry. Today, innBW unites nine research institutions with a total of eleven institutes.