15 Years of BioPark Regensburg– a little story of success

For years Regensburg, located at the northern most point of the Danube in Bavaria with a population of 150,000, is according to prognostic studies one of the most quickly growing and dynamic communities in Germany. Innovative industrial enterprises such as BMW, Osram, Infineon, Continental, Siemens or GE Aviation have settled here. 31,000 young people study at the University – the East Bavarian Institute of Technology Regensburg (OTH), which is combined on a college campus with the university clinic and the district clinic.

A significant driver of this development was and is the active community promotion of the economy. Through consistent support of new technologies, the creation of the necessary infrastructure and fast, direct routes in the administration, we have been able to create a fertile breeding ground for technology-oriented companies explained Dieter Daminger, Vice Mayor and Councilor for Economic, Financial and Research Affairs of the City of Regensburg.

In addition to e-mobility, IT security and logistics and sensory technology, the field of the life sciences has been massively supported with municipal measures. The BioRegion Competition of BMBF1996 was the birth of the  cluster initiative of BioRegion Regensburg. BioPark Regensburg GmbH was founded in 1999 as an enterprise of the City of Regensburg with the goal of establishing biotechnology as a new  economic sector in this location and in the region and to offer commercial laboratories.

In 1999 Dr. Thomas Diefenthal was acquired as an experienced manager. Following his doctorate at the Max-Plank-Institute, he established a laboratory centre in a midsized company and founded from this as managing partner his own biotech company. It was this experience he was able to gainfully bring to the construction of the BioPark buildings I to III and consultancy on start-ups.

Today the BioPark and the BioRegion Regensburg with 48 companies and 3,369 employees has developed into the second largest life science cluster and centre in Bavaria following Munich. With subsidies from the State of Bavaria, the City of Regensburg, the Government, the  European Union and equity capital, the three buildings were able to be constructed directly on the university campus. BioPark I became operative in 2001, BioPark II in 2006 and BioPark III in 2011. With an average utilisation level of over 90%, the BioPark can meanwhile be run independently despite subsidised leaseholders and is a good example of sustainable enabling policy. On an area of 18,000 m2, there are 35 companies and institutes here with 600 employees and an in-house childcare facility.

Amgen, one of the largest US biotech companies in the world, has settled in the BioPark and operates here one of the most modern facilities for the search for active substances for new medicines. Geneart - the former start-up company at the university today belongs to the US company Thermo Fisher Scientific. At the BioPark with two Fraunhofer working groups and the Regensburg Center of Immunology (RCI), the  germ cells for the first possible external university research institutes were laid in Regensburg. With the moving of the first laboratories into the BioPark, the Regensburg Center of Biomedical Engineering (RCBE) started the first  interdisciplinary study course between the OTH and the Clinic.

In addition to the good infrastructure and support from BioPark Regensburg, the companies of the BioRegion Regensburg have profited from Bavarian Cluster policies. In this way the companies are able to best  profit via the promotion of the state at trade fairs abroad and delegation trips (Bayern International), domestic trade fairs and events in the field of the life sciences (Bayern Innovativ) and the management of cluster initiative Biotechnology Bavaria (Bio M). As a  consequence the State of Bavaria has been biotechnology location number 1 in Germany for years, which is expressed in regular events in Munich (BIO Europe, Deutsche Biotechnologietage) or Regensburg (Annual Conference of the German Association of Innovation, Technology and Business Incubation Centres).

In the last 15 years 374 teams from the field of the life sciences took part in the Businessplan Competition North Bavaria promoted by the State of Bavaria. From these teams alone currently 116 companies are active in the market, of these 24 in BioPark Regensburg. All companies of the BioRegio Regensburg together have acquired in the last 15 years 496 million €, of this 116 million € in venture capital and 245 million € in  equity capital. The BioPark managing directors Dr. Thomas Diefenthal (active full-time CEO) and Dieter Daminger(active part-time CFO) invested in particular with the aquisition of 135 million € in subsidies from the government, the State of Bavaria and the EU a large proportion of this. 42 million € alone was invested in the three BioPark buildings.

On 11 July 2014 an anniversary celebratory event is to take place with minister of state Emilia Müller at the BioPark. On the following Saturday 12 July the BioPark and its companies are holding an open day.