Adlershof as a role model
Technology transfer from South Africa to Israel
Two delegations per week, 1,200 mostly international visitors a year. The figures already show that Adlershof has long been radiating well beyond Berlin and Germany. Adlershof's doers are globally networked. They learn through exchanges with technology parks from around the world and are prepared to share their expertise.
The Indian Ocean is splashing in the background as Konrad Hochhold explains his project. What started as a vision in 2011 is slowly taking on the shape of a technology park. Soon, the construction teams will descend and create the structures in stone that the Berliner has been developing with politicians, universities and investors and with the supporters from his home town for months. The South African region of KwaZulu-Natal is hoping for Hochhold's planned "Renewable Energy Development Hub KwaZulu-Natal" to be successful. By the end of this year this should be home to research, development and production of all things to do with renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grid, water and biodiversity.
"We lost a year because the previously planned location fell through," says Hochhold. He didn't let himself get demoralised, and found the new 80-hectare campus in the coastal town of Ballito, which is between the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay. There is a huge amount of support locally. What started as an idea at the World Climate Conference in Durban has caught on in the minds of regional and local decision makers. Among other things, Durban University of Technology is building new institutes at the site orientated towards the focuses of the technology park.
The Adlershof technology park is a role model for this. "In five years, we want to develop around a quarter of what Adlershof is currently able to do," says Hochhold. In the future, companies from Adlershof will get the status of preferred suppliers. Since 2012, there has been a close partnership with WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH, without whom his project would not be where it currently is. Delegation visits and workshops have brought the Adlershof role model closer to those responsible in South Africa: successful clusters and incubators, short pathways from basic research to industrial application. Hochhold attributes the fact that his concept of a technology park which is mainly home to medium sized companies blew the strong international competition away to the help he received from Berlin.
One of the aims is to transfer the knowledge and experience of the "Berlin Energy Network" to KwaZulu-Natal. Hochhold has also brought partners from China, South Korea, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium on board. Thirty-nine companies have already signed letters of intent to occupy. "Like in Adlershof, the important thing is creating synergies between science, technology, production and project development," says Hochhold. The aim is to increase local value creation in the field of renewable energy from 20 to 80 percent. In order to ensure that this doesn't remain a pipe dream, Durban and the provincial government have committed to buy electricity produced through commercial and pilot projects in photovoltaics, wind and bioenergy totalling 200 megawatts.
WISTA CEO Hardy Rudolf Schmitz knows Hochhold's project and is impressed by the progress. He himself often casts his eye over technology parks around the world: he has been Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) since October 2013. Schmitz feels that this role is a real asset. "Dealing with various different developed technology parks around the world sharpens your sense of your own strengths and weaknesses – and for further potential for development after 20 years in Adlershof," he says. According to Schmitz, developed technology parks are feeling that infrastructure, functioning clusters and competence when creating solutions is not sufficient to an increasing extent. "In order to be really attractive, a location needs a soul," he says. In Adlershof, the aim is for academic excellence, architectural class and a lively habitat for growth with over 1,000 companies to combine to form an even stronger identity than before: "Science at Work". Adlershof as a location where science is practised and knowledge is converted into jobs brought to life through collaboration. The plan is for urban life to come here and invigorate the district. That would be the icing on the cake. Because the skills which successful technology parks around the world are able to take from the few successful ones Adlershof already has: here, companies find networks where they can crack even the hardest nuts within walking distance. And the commodity which is in the greatest demand around the world is present almost to excess: young, motivated and excellently educated minds.
This is the message which is coming through. This can also be seen in a project which is planning on bringing together a small group of Adlershofers with Israeli partners: and Israeli centre in Adlershof. The plans are in motion, but not definite yet. The initiators will only give one thing away: "we want to be the focal point for Israeli technology companies and startups who want to gain a foothold on the German market."
By Peter Trechow