BUSINESS BAVARIA

WHAT‘S INSIDE

ISSUE 07/08 | 2012

BUSINESS BAVARIA

5 MINUTES WITH ...Dr. Manfred Stefener - Distinguished by the European Patent Office as Inventor of the Year for his portable Fuel Cells

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IN FOCUS: LEADING EDGE CLUSTERSThree exemplary Bavarian Clusters and their Significance for the Industry

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BAVARIA IN YOUR BRIEFCASE200 Years of Beer Gardens

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The Free State of Bavaria invests Euro 20 million in the integration of the ATZ development centre with the Fraunhofer Society to advance research focusing on the turn in energy policy. Under the name of UMSICHT-ATZ, the facility, founded in the Upper-Palatinate town of Sulzbach Rosenberg in 1990, becomes part of the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT in Oberhausen. In a joint

NEW FRAUNHOFER CENTRE BOOSTS BAVARIA’S ENERGY RESEARCH

That the cluster initiative of the Free State vitalises the Bavarian economy has already been confi rmed. In the context of a cluster congress, Germany’s Federal State with the strongest economy will now defi ne new goals and continue the success story.

CONGRESS ON THE CLUSTER INITIATIVE

SUCCESS PROJECT WITH A FUTURE

The Free State of Bavaria expects to welcome well over 1000 companies and organisations of the Bavarian industry to the cluster congress on Wednesday, 25 July. The meeting will take place at the research campus of the Technical Univer-sity of Munich in Garching under the motto ‘Suc-cessful Through Networking’ - an issue gaining more and more importance both for business and research.

With its cluster initiative, initiated six years ago, the Free State promotes benefi cial relationships between companies and research establish-ments, service providers and investors.

Its success cannot be denied: Until now, more than 5,000 participating Bavarian companies have profi ted from the services of the cluster teams across many sectors of research and business. For them, the initiative is a real success story, since the 19 Bavarian clusters of various industries pro-vide profi table advantages for tackling the world-wide competition:

They establish contacts to important suppliers, customers, service providers and research insti-

tutions that SMEs, for instance, would hardly be able to develop on their own.

In the framework of the cluster congress, the Free State will take stock and defi ne innovative goals for years to come while qualifi ed representatives of the individual clusters will present selected success projects of their teams. In specialised forums, experts will discuss and consult on issues which have become vital for today’s medium-sized companies, and open up new perspectives. Key issues are, for example: manufacturing technol-ogy, the turn in energy politics within companies, new materials, the future of mobility, information technology and corporate fi nancing.

http://bayern-innovativ.de/clusterkongress2012/programm

http://bayern-innovativ.de/cluster

effort, studies are to be implemented and strategies as well as practical pro-cedures developed on how to meet the requirements of the raw materials market with its increasingly scarce resources. As a fi rst step, the Fraunhofer Centre for Energy Storage (CES) will be established at the Bavarian locations of Sulzbach-Rosenberg and Straubing.

SUMMEREDITIONJuly/ August 2012

The Business Promotion Agency of the State of Bavaria

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This is the trade volume between Bavaria and China in the fi rst quarter of 2012. For the fi rst time, the Middle Kingdom has now become the most important trade partner of the Free State. The extent of trade between China and Bavaria today even exceeds the trade volume between the Free State and Austria, its direct neighbour. Bavaria can also be proud of

a signifi cant increase in demand for products ‘Made in Bavaria’ overall. The growth is owed, in particular, to the automotive industry (+7.4 per cent), the mechanical engineering sector (+12.9 per cent) and the pro-ducers of chemical products (+11.7 per cent).

Every year, the European Patent Office, headquartered in Munich, distinguishes the world’s best inventors. When this year’s winners were announced in June, a versatile entrepreneur from Bavaria was among the laureates: Dr. Manfred Stefener received the award for the first portable fuel cell in the category ‘Small and Medium-sized Companies’. We spoke with the inventor. 

HOW EXACTLY CAN WE VISUALIZE YOUR PORTABLE FUEL CELL? DOES IT FIT INTO A BAG?The ‘EFOY Comfort’ by SFC Energy is available for standard use in everyday life situations or for lei-sure applications - for instance in a boat, a mobile home or a mountain cabin.

WHICH ADVANTAGES WERE PROVIDED BY THE LOCATION IN BAVARIA DURING THE DEVELOPMENT AND INVENTION OF THE PORTABLE FUEL CELL?From a technological and scientifi c perspective,

Bavaria is a highly dynamic location, especially when it comes to promoting the development of new technologies.

HOW DOES ONE ACTUALLY INVENT A FUEL CELL?I started out studying chemical engineering in Dortmund. Between 1997 and 2000, I worked as a scientifi c assistant on the subject of fuel cells at the Duisburg University, at the research centre in Jülich and fi nally for the Technical University of Munich. Then I wrote my thesis at the Technical University on the topic of “Electrode Structures for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells” which I completed ‘magna cum laude’. The Technical University of Munich proved very helpful in connecting technology with business. In 1999, I was able to win the ‘Munich Business Plan’ competition and could thus develop a helpful network of investors and business angels. In 2000, I ended up creating the company SCF Energy.

AS CEO AND FOUNDER OF SFC ENERGY AG YOU INVENTED THE PORTABLE FUEL CELL, BUT THEN YOU SET UP NEW ENTERPRISES - THE ELCOMAX / ELCORE GROUP IN MUNICH. WHY?Once SFC had turned into a success, I identifi ed new potential industrial applications for the fuel cell technology. Five years ago, I consequently

established the company Elcomax which offers a technology platform for maximum output fuel cells for the industry. Three years later, i. e. in 2010, I created Elcore which today - with its product ‘El-core 2400’ - markets a particularly compact and effi cient power-heat-coupling device allowing fuel cell technology to be applied for environmentally-friendly power supply applications in single-family homes. Fuel cells can make a vital contribution here, easing the strain on electric grids, saving pri-mary energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

FOR WHICH FIELDS IS YOUR PORTABLE FUEL CELL PARTICULARLY USEFUL AND IMPOR-TANT? The portable fuel cell offers many possible appli-cation scenarios. It can certainly be highly useful when camping, sailing or on expeditions, but it is also suited for industrial application, or to support governmental tasks where independence from power sources or the provision of a back-up so-lution in case of a possible power failure are re-quired.

www.elcore2400.com

NUMBEROF THE MONTH € 7.1 BILLION

DR. MANFRED STEFENER,

FOUNDER OF THE SMART FUEL CELL AG (SFC) IN BRUNNTHAL AND OF

ELCOMAX GMBH IN MUNICH.

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5 MINUTES WITH ...

The three leading edge clusters of the Free State have led the way: Scientifi c innovation and economic know-how result in economic suc-cess, many new jobs and fresh perspectives. The success of the M·A·I Carbon, m4 and Medical Valley EMN clusters demonstrates how im-portant networking really is in practice, and which role the site condi-tions offered by the Free State play.

Research, development, innovation and high-quality production: the Free State of Bavaria is considered one of the most interesting investment loca-tions world-wide. Not for nothing - after all, the state has an exceptionally well-developed high technology industry. With its cluster initiative, Bavaria strengthens cooperation networks across the entire state between companies, universities and research establishments, service providers and investors in 19 core competence fi elds in the sectors of mobility, material development, man and environment, information and electro-technology, services and media.

The results of this governmental support have long been bearing fruit: two years ago already, the Federal Ministry of Research honoured the Munich-based biotech cluster m4 and the Medical Valley Europäische Metropolregion Nuremberg (EMN). The M·A·I Carbon cluster won this year’s national leading edge cluster competition.

m4 - Medicine of the Future The best example of the clusters’ continued dynamics is the biotech cluster m4 in Munich which was founded back in the 90‘s and belongs to the Bavarian bio-technology network. About 262 companies and organizations with a total of 90,000 employees from the entire biotechnology industry have organised themselves in this group. Since not every therapy leads to equally positive results among patients and side effects often have different impact, the cluster currently focuses on the key issue of ‘personalised medicine and targeted therapies’. It is important to develop detailed diagnostics as well as an individually tailored therapy ap-proach. On a well-founded scientifi c basis, the cluster selects targeted me-thods to “treat severe illnesses optimally and to - ideally - fully cure diseases”,

comments George Kääb, spokesperson of m4. Two thirds of the companies involved in the Munich-based biotech cluster m4 are small and medium-sized companies, many of them spin-offs of the academic institutes of Ludwig Maxi-milians University, the Technical University of Munich, the bio-scientifi c Max-Planck-Institutes and the Helmholtz Centre Munich.

The advantages are manifold. The CEO of a Biotech company in Munich in-volved in the cluster describes his experience as follows: “Only by the new ori-entation in the cluster has the subject of ‘personalised medicine’ come into fo-cus, which has been affecting our project strategy quite considerably ever since.”

The Medical Valley EMN - The Innovation Network The Medical Valley Europäische Metropolregion Nuremberg (EMN) has made similar experiences. The over 500 cluster partners with approximately 4,500 employees in the Franconian metropolis region develop products and services to improve health care effi ciency: Innovative ideas in sectors such as imaging diagnostics, intelligent sensor as well as therapy systems and ophthalmology. The cluster, in which universities, colleges and non-academic research estab-lishments are involved, develops - for instance - service concepts allowing se-nile dementia patients to live at home longer.

Medical companies simply fi nd ideal conditions in the Free State: In addition to 250 medium-sized companies, some of the economically most infl uencal medical technology and pharmaceutical companies world-wide are represent-ed here, including global players such as Siemens Healthcare, Baxter, Beck-manCoulter, Fresenius Medical, GlaxoSmithKline, Viasys, Roche and General Electric with its European Research Centre in Garching. Medical Valley’s Jörg Trinkwalter (Head of Cluster Marketing & Development, Member of the Man-aging Board) is confi dent: “In the next decades, the issue of health care will sustainably improve medical technology.”

M·A·I Carbon – The Material ExpertsWhat the Medical Valley is in health care, M·A·I Carbon is to the user indus-tries of automotive engineering, aviation and space as well as mechanical engineering and plant construction. The cluster located within the triangle of Augsburg, Munich and Ingolstadt is a member of the umbrella cluster ‘New Materials’ in the fi eld of material development. Among others, members of the fi bre-reinforced lightweight construction and the Security & Safety Cluster Munich are participating. A total of 72 partners are now involved in the leading edge cluster initiative. One objective is to establish high-performance fi bre-reinforced plastic materials and thus making valuable contributions to resource effi ciency. M. A. I. Carbon is primed for this in the best possible way: Among its founding partners are successful enterprises such as Audi, BMW, Premium AEROTEC, Eurocopter, Voith and the SGL Group as well as the Institute for Carbon Composites (LCC) of the Technical University of Munich.

www.mai-carbon.de

www.medical-valley-emn.de

www.m4.de

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IN FOCUS: LEADING EDGE CLUSTERS

THE APPROPRIATE NETWORK FOR THE RIGHT LOCATION

Augustiner - Keller Munich

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FAIRS & EVENTS

IMAGE SOURCES: P. 1: Dirkauskiel / photocase.com | P. 2: www.elcore2400.comP. 3: MMchen / photocase.com | P. 4: © www.augustinerkeller.de

YOUR KEY TO OUR STATEInvest in Bavaria – The Business Promotion Agency of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and Bayern International.

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ISPO BIKE 201216 – 19 AUG. 2012Bicycle Exhibition

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GALABAU 201212 – 15 SEP. 2012International Trade Fair for Urban Green and Open Spaces

www.galabau.info-web.de/en

BAVARIA CELEBRATES 200 YEARS OF BEER GARDENS

Imposing chestnut trees rise up into the blue sky providing shadow for beer benches and long tables. Birds are singing, people laughing, and the clanking of beer jugs overfl owing with chilled beer fi lls the air: A summer scenery to be witnessed in thousands of Bavaria’s beer gardens for over 200 years now; this is how long beer gardens - both highly popular and well-known all over the world - have been around.

… BY AND WITH INVEST IN BAVARIA

BAVARIA IN YOUR BRIEFCASE

On 4 January 1812, Bavarian King Max I issued the beer garden regulation. It says that “By sovereign rescript, His Majesty - The King grants that local brewers may consume and offer brewed beer above their March cellars in the months of June, July, August and September ‘in minuti’ and serve their guests with beer and bread. However, they are expressly prohibited from serving meals and other beverages…“ But how did the beer garden regulation come about in the fi rst place? A 16th century decree triggered it all. When brewing beer, the kettles had to be heated to high temperatures. This was particularly risky during hot summer months, because fi res broke out easily back then and so the brewers were not allowed to brew their barley juice between April and September. This prohibition, based on the Bavarian brewing order of 1539, commenced on St. George’s Day (23 April) and ended

with the Michaelmas celebrations on 29 September. During this period, the kettles had to remain cold, so a supply of beer was stocked for the summer months which was brewed in March - the so-called ‘Märzen’.

This very strong beer had to be stored cold, otherwise it would have gone bad. So the owners of the breweries built underground cooling cellars such as the Löwenbräu or the Hofbräukeller in Munich. The breweries planted trees with large leaves and dense foliage - mostly chestnut trees - over their ‘March cellars’ and added a layer of gravel to provide for cool temperatures. Now, only a few tables and benches were missing to enjoy a freshly tapped beer - and so the concept of the beer garden was born. Soon, small meals were served in addition to the cold beer, which did not please the innkeepers, of course, since the breweries were now taking away their customers. Massive protests followed, whereupon King Max I issued the beer garden regulation allow-ing brewers to go on selling beer, but no meals. From then on, guests were allowed to bring their own food - a rule which has survived and is still main-tained in many beer gardens to this day.

“200 Jahre Biergarten“: Special Exhibition, until 1 September 2012Bier und Oktoberfest Museum, Munich

www.bier-und-oktoberfestmuseum.de

“Festival of Brass Music and Traditional Costumes“: Historic anniver-sary celebrations with coopers, whip-cracking and traditional beer mugs, on 21 July 2012 Augustiner Keller www.augustinerkeller.de and the ‘Biergarten am Viktualienmarkt’, both in Munich

“Hofbräu-Dult“ mit Brauereifest: with brewery party, brewery tours and market stands, on 21 July 2012 on the premises of the Hofbräu brewery in Munich-Riem

www.hofbraeu-muenchen.de

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