Biomedical technology in Franconia

Medical instrumentation and biotechnology business is developing rapidly in Franconia, The universities of Bayreuth, Erlangen-Nurnberg, and Wurzburg h old upper ranks in biomedical extramural funding research. They have a high competence in biomedical research, medical instrumentation, and biotechnol ogy. The association "BioMedTec Franken e.V" has been founded at the beginn ing of 1999 both to foster the information exchange between universities, i ndustry and politics and to facilitate the establishment of biomedical comp anies by means of science parks. In the IGZ (Innovation and Foundation Cent er Nurnberg-Furth-Erlangen) 4,500 square meters of space are currently shar ed by 19 novel companies. Since 1985 60 companies in the IGZ had a total tu rnover of about 74 Mio Euro. The TGZ (Technologie- und Grunderzentrum) in W urzburg provides space for 11 companies. For the specific needs of biomedic al technology companies further science parks will be set up in the near fu ture. A science park for medical instrumentation will be founded in Erlange n (IZMP, Innovations- und Grunderzentrum fur Medizintechnik und Pharma in d er Region Nurnberg, Furth, Erlangen). Furthermore, a Biomedical Technology Center Wurzburg and Bayreuth, respectively. Several communication platforms (Bayern Innovativ, FORWISS, FTT, KIM, N-TEC-VISIT, TBU, WETTI etc.) allow the transfer of local academic research activities to industrial utilizatio n and open new co-operation possibilities. International pharmaceutical com panies (Novartis Nurnberg; Pharmacia Upjohn, Erlangen) are located in Franc onia. Central Franconia represents a national focus for medical instrumenta tion. The Erlangen settlement of the Medical Engineering Section of Siemens employs 4,500 people including approximately 1,000 employees in the Siemen s research center.