Research is playing a key role in the development of organic and printed electronics, but a single company, research institute or university would be hard-pressed to create the advances needed to move the field forward. This is leading to collaborations.

One approach is the creation of clusters, either geographic or by product area. InnovationLab GmbH (iL), located in Heidelberg, Germany, is a successful example of a geographic cluster.

The Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and surrounding areas are home to a large number of well-known companies, universities and research institutions focusing on the development of the future technology organic electronics, and with the InnovationLab, these groups are now sharing their expertise.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) provided the initial s€40 million in funding from 2008-2013, and research operations at InnovationLab started in 2011 with a €15 million high-tech lab for printed and organic electronics. An additional €40 million was contributed by the industrial partners of the cluster. Approximately 100 scientists currently work at InnovationLab on projects relating to printed and organic electronics.

“In the past, this mainly took the form of individual activities or bilateral cooperations,” said Nina Hoyler of InnovationLab GmbH. “With the leading-edge cluster competition held by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) acting as a catalyst, the loosely connected participants from science and business have been successfully brought together into a close-knit research network, the Forum Organic Electronics.

“This targeted networking has led to the formation of a leading-edge cluster for organic electronics, whose depiction of the entire value chain gives it a selling point which is unique in the world,” Hoyler added. “In accordance with the model of co-innovation, the partners’ competences are combined across disciplines. Joint research projects create decisive synergies, which allow a fast flow of information between the parties involved, a short feedback line in order to optimize materials, processes and equipment as well as the faster development of marketable products and applications, and shorter development cycles. The partners’ activities are guided by the jointly defined goals and a joint strategy.”

InnovationLab is responsible for managing the cluster Forum Organic Electronics (FOE), and hosts the common application-oriented research and knowledge transfer platform of business and science in Heidelberg. A worldwide unique laboratory has been set up, in which academic scientists and industrial researchers from various disciplines work together on the development of printed organic electronics.

Hoyler noted that the InnovationLab’s goals are to develop close collaboration between synthesis of materials for printed and organic electronics and equipment manufacturers, shorten feedback time, serve as a feedback line and act as an “enabler” for its cluster partners, supporting them in pursuing their research interests

InnovationLab has put together an impressive list of partners covering a wide range of disciplines, from materials to presses as well as leading universities, including:
• BASF SE: Material expertise for printed and organic electronics.
• Merck: Material expertise for printed and organic electronics.
• Heidelberg Printing Presses: Printing processes and engineering expertise.
• cynora GmbH: Material expertise for printed and organic electronics.
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: Device physics expertise (Light Technology Institute) and thin film technology expertise (Thin Film Technology).
• Heidelberg University: Synthesis and analytics expertise (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Kirchhoff Institute for Physics).
• Mannheim University: Entrepreneurship expertise (Chair of Small and Medium Sized Companies and Entrepreneurship).
• TU Braunschweig: Analytics expertise (Institute of High-Frequency).
• TU Darmstadt: Analytics expertise and Knowledge in printing processes and machines (Institute of Printing Science and Technology).
• Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research: Simulation expertise.

To date, InnovationLab has a list of important advances to its credit. iL has set up an interdisciplinary network of researchers based at one venue, created unique state-of-the-art clean room laboratories and consolidated the research platform and its cooperation model by bringing in BASF and Merck as strong shareholders of InnovationLab.

In May 2014, Merck and BASF announced that they had acquired a 70% stake in InnovationLab. Merck, BASF, the University of Heidelberg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) make up the advisory board of the research platform.

“By consolidating the joint research activities of academia and business under one roof, we have created a new, effective model for successful scientific transfer,” concluded Martin Raditsch, CEO of InnovationLab.