Topping-out ceremony for the Science Park Kassel

The central university think tank promotes dialog between the start-up scene and business. More than 50 percent of the space is already occupied.

With the new building, one of the largest construction projects on the site of the new North Campus celebrated its topping-out ceremony. The Science Park will be owned in equal parts by the City of Kassel and the University of Kassel. Lord Mayor Bertram Hilgen emphasized that the park "will further significantly increase the city's attractiveness as a business location and provide new strong impetus for Kassel's current economic success story." Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Postlep, President of the University of Kassel, added: "The Science Park Kassel will be a highly attractive location, especially for start-up teams, who will be able to develop and actively implement their ideas here. For the positive development of the city and region in the recent past, such impulses from the university have already played a major role - the Science Park will additionally support this development in the future."

The Science Park Kassel will offer students, scientists, start-ups and innovative companies and organizations flexible spaces that can be designed in a variety of ways. In the Ideas Lab, for example, students from a wide range of disciplines will be able to network with partners from business and society as part of joint projects. The lab is the park's creative center and will offer everything from Lego bricks to blackboards to support creative thinking and work. Furthermore, part of the entrepreneurial training of students will take place in this area, such as the already successfully established interdisciplinary format "Machen - Experiments in the Ideas Workshop". The fact that such an idea lab works is demonstrated by models at the famous Californian Stanford University or at the Potsdam School of Design Thinking.

The university transfer organization UniKasselTransfer, the incubator, GINo mbH as a patent marketing agency and patent information center, and the UNIKIMS Management School will move directly into the new Science Park buildings. Managing Director Dr. Oliver Fromm comments: "The Science Park Kassel sees itself as a central element of the concept for promoting entrepreneurial thinking and action. For this, the University of Kassel received the predicate 'Gründerhochschule' from the Federal Ministry of Economics last January."

The Science Park Kassel

Located on the north campus of the University of Kassel, a site with an area of more than 6,000 square meters will be created by the end of 2014. The aim of the Science Park is to become both an interdisciplinary hotbed of ideas and start-ups and a central exchange point between science and business. In addition to laboratories, workshops, workshops and studios with state-of-the-art equipment, the park offers flexible office space ranging from 15 to 600 square meters. It will also offer a co-working area that founders can use by the day or month.

In total, Science Park Kassel will offer space for 30 to 60 young companies. The construction costs of around 15 million euros are being borne by the city of Kassel, the state of Hesse and the University of Kassel. The building owner, sponsor and operator is Science Park Kassel GmbH, which was founded specifically for this purpose and is owned 50 percent each by the city of Kassel and the University of Kassel. The city of Kassel is contributing around seven million euros, the state of Hesse around 7.5 million (from the European Regional Development Fund ERDF) and the university around 0.5 million. The building is being realized by the Stuttgart office of Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten.

The managing directors are Dr. Oliver Fromm, head of the knowledge transfer institution UniKasselTransfer, and Dr. Gerold Kreuter, managing director of FiDT Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Kassel.

Company contact

Dr. Oliver Fromm

Managing Director Science Park Kassel GmbH

Mönchebergstrasse 7

34109 Kassel

Phone: 0561 804-2734

E-mail: ofromm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de