"InnoQuarter Itzehoe" brand launches to market flourishing region

7 March 2024

Itzehoe offering success stories for companies in microtechnologies, battery storage, renewable energies

The new "InnoQuarter Itzehoe" brand and website launched Thursday (February 22, 2024) to market the technology business park and the flourishing region. "Itzehoe is a successful example of innovation-based regional development. In the early 1990s, IZET launched its technology and start-up centre with the Fraunhofer Institute ISIT as a nucleus," said Christoph Kober, Managing Director of IZET. And the region remains dynamic, he stressed. All kinds of companies are now successfully doing business there. The German battery cell manufacturer Custom Cells, for instance, recently opened a new headquarters and research centre in the region while the U.S. semi-conductor group, Vishay, is building a new chip factory at a cost of USD 400 million. The start-up OQmented, a Fraunhofer ISIT spin-off, is producing micro laser displays for augmented reality headsets and is expanding as far as Silicon Valley. "We want to promote success stories like this vigorously" Kober stressed.

New brand offers all kinds of opportunities

Speaking during the Go Live event, Ralf Hoppe, Mayor of Itzehoe, noted: "The InnoQuarter will divert even more national attention to companies here as well as the city of Itzehoe. We can all benefit from this as our technology centre is a catalyst of structural development in the region.” Around 70 partners and stakeholders attended the launch and panel discussion on the opportunities and benefits of the new partnership and initial ideas for sustainability projects. Among the panellists were Lutz Bitomsky, Walter-Otto-Müller GmbH & Co. KG, Claudia Buschmann, Fraunhofer ISIT, Leif Henningsen, Vishay Siliconix Itzehoe GmbH, and Karsten Reinholz, REINHOLZ Technologies GmbH. “The talks also focused on approaches for a joint energy supply or strategies for avoiding CO2," said Kober.

Location to become synonymous with success

David Westerhoff, a student of electrical engineering at the Kiel University of Applied Sciences, wrote his final thesis at ISIT, and was among the 2023 winners of the “Thesis” prize, for his B.A. entitled "Electrothermal Instability of Power MOSFET”. This year's round of the Thesis prize for outstanding young academics is now underway and the best three entries stand to win prize money ranging from EUR 500 to EUR 3,000. Kober, 41, believes: "Precisely this combination of science, research and industry leads to innovation," Kober, who was formerly head of Hamburg Invest's Startup Support and Talent Services, hopes to strengthen young professionals' ties with the region. "We want to make Itzehoe synonymous with a successful centre of innovation."

Feierlicher Start der neuen Standortmarke mit Vertreter:innen aus Wirtschaft, Forschung und Öffentlicher Hand

Move-outs enable new move-ins

The InnoQuarter Itzehoe offers variable office, laboratory and workshop space for start-ups, SMEs and large international companies in the microtechnology, battery storage, renewable energies, information technologies, Industry 4.0 and production sectors. "The ecosystem here is mutually beneficial. That makes the innovation space really resilient," said Kober. The demand is certainly proving him right with capacity usage of 85 per cent. On top of that, the atmosphere is great despite the challenging era. "Nowadays, founders are focusing mainly on raising capital. Apart from that, most of the start-ups that recently moved out are headed for growth and need more space. Those moving out enable more start-ups to move in making for a nice dynamic," he added.

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