Memberships in associations and support by institutions

BITKOM represents more than 1,700 companies, including over 1,100 direct members with 135 billion euros in sales and 700,000 employees. BITKOM represents almost all global players as well as 800 medium-sized companies and numerous founder-managed companies. These include providers of software and IT services, telecommunications and Internet services, manufacturers of hardware and consumer electronics, and digital media companies.

The Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL) is an open network of people who actively work for efficient cooperation in the globalised economy. Its core objective is to communicate the importance of supply chain management and logistics – and to advance their application and development. More than 10,000 specialists and executives from industry, trade, services and science are represented in the BVL worldwide. It sees itself as an active community whose members want to look beyond their sphere of influence in order to benefit professionally and humanly – and to donate. BVL places particular emphasis on the exchange of knowledge and experience. The BVL is a non-profit organisation. According to its self-image, it is objective, independent and does not represent any particular interests in the political and economic debate. However, BVL is actively committed to the interests of logistics as a whole.

The Industry 4.0 platform is a joint project of the German trade associations BITKOM, VDMA and ZVEI for the further development and implementation of the Industry 4.0 future project of the German government’s High-Tech Strategy. The term Industry 4.0 stands for the use of the Internet of Things and Services in industrial processes, production and logistics, with far-reaching consequences for value creation, business models, downstream services and work organisation. This cooperation of three large associations reflects the convergence of the technologies they represent: In industry 4.0, information and communication, automation and production technologies will be more closely interlinked than ever before. The aim is to defend and expand the traditional core of German industry with its internationally outstanding position.

The BVMW is an industry-neutral interest representation of the medium-size economy in Germany and speaks up-to-date for approximately 50,000 small and middle enterprises and independent ones. The number of members also includes customers who have only taken out insurance with the BVMW. Including the members of the 40 cooperating trade and industry associations, the association estimates the total number of member companies to be over 270,000. Approximately 9 million people are employed in these companies. The BVMW thus sees itself as the “largest voluntarily organised force” of German small and medium-sized enterprises – probably in contrast to the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), the umbrella organisation of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

Founded in 1980 as AMA Arbeitsgemeinschaft Messwertaufnehmer e.V., the AMA Fachverband für Sensorik e.V. today has around 460 members, of which more than 70 are R&D institutes. AMA sees itself as the lobby of all those who deal with technical measurement systems (measuring or switching) for a wide variety of applications along the value chain. The entire value chain of sensors/measuring systems is covered, from basic research to manufacturers to service providers and from microtechnologies to sensor elements, complex measuring, testing and switching systems to actuators.

The ISAD e. V. supports all users and manufacturers of data and audio radio systems and products (IC’s, modules, devices, systems etc.), the so-called short range devices, in the use of valid frequency spectrum and standards and represents their interests in and vis-à-vis the responsible national and international committees and administrations. The association stands for the preservation and careful supplementation of the current and future use of SRD frequency spectra and their standardization and harmonization.

The Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focusing on climate change. It consists of dynamic and committed companies as well as the best institutions from research and partners from the public sector. The Climate-KIC is one of three Knowledge and Innovation Communities established in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). One of the aims of the Climate-KIC is to integrate education, entrepreneurship and innovation in such a way that ideas and knowledge are creatively transformed into economically successful products and services that help to mitigate climate change. The Climate-KIC supports young, promising companies with practical tools and possibilities to transform business and product ideas into economic success.

The Campus Charlottenburg is one of the largest contiguous inner-city university areas in Europe and at the same time one of the most diverse locations for science, art and design in Germany – embedded in the urban centre of the German capital.
The ARGE Campus Charlottenburg was founded on 10 October 2010. The initiators are the Technische Universität Berlin, the Universität der Künste Berlin and the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.

The Charlottenburger Innovations-Centrum (CHIC) is part of the Campus Charlottenburg in the immediate vicinity of the Technische Universität Berlin and the Universität der Künste Berlin as well as other renowned research institutions with its special offers especially for company founders and young innovative or creative companies with a research-oriented orientation.

The founder network of the Berlin universities was founded in July 2005 under the name B!GRÜNDET. In addition to all Berlin’s universities and technical colleges, the network’s partners include Charité University Medicine, the Leibniz Scientific Association, the Berlin Institute for Start-ups, Technologie Coaching Center GmbH (TCC) and ipal, the IP asset management company of Berlin’s universities.
The aim of the network is to initiate business start-ups from universities, to qualify potential founders and to support them in realising their business ideas.