Potsdam Science Park: Strongest demand in its history during the Corona pandemic

Neighbourhood garages are to reduce traffic, and in the long term, a road and S-Bahn connection is to be examined. But the plans go further. Golm could grow strongly on the 60-hectare “North Study Area”: residential buildings, school and leisure facilities are planned.

Over the past 30 years, the Potsdam Science Park – initially under the label Science Park Golm – has significantly determined the development of the town. The most important point of orientation to this day is the train station, which is centrally located in the densifying research and innovation campus and from which the center of Berlin as well as BER Airport can be reached in just over half an hour. East of the railway line are facilities of the University of Potsdam for the Faculties of Humanities and Mathematics and Natural Sciences with around 9,000 students. Since the mid-1990s, five research institutes of the Max Planck Society and the Fraunhofer Society have settled to the west of it. Right next door, 30 companies have so far moved into office and laboratory buildings such as the “GG:IN Golm Innovation Center 1”, which opened in 2007.

There are still many areas to be allocated, says Agnes von Matuschka, Managing Director of the Potsdam Science Park. “But demand is growing, because the special thing here is the close coexistence and togetherness.” Around 3,000 of the employees here work in science and research, a quarter of whom come from about 70 countries, including young scientists: “The companies and research institutes can therefore recruit their staff directly on site.”

Founders are also welcome on the Golmer site. In the start-up space of “GO:IN 1”, they can rent their first desk or an already equipped laboratory at a reasonable price and stay for up to five years, explains the site manager. Prospects also open up for the start-ups: “As the company grows, it can move to larger offices, have its own building built by project developers or acquire a plot of land and build it itself.”

The history of the Science Park was eventful, Agnes von Matuschka sums up: “When the research institutes settled here, there was a great spirit of optimism. The fact that the Innovation Center was opened in 2007 was a milestone, because spin-off companies could stay right here.” After a quiet phase, the location has experienced an upswing again. The city of Potsdam had the second innovation center “GO:IN 2” built – which opened in October 2021. The new “H-LAB” will be occupied by companies for biotechnology and life sciences in winter.

“We are back in a phase that gives us confidence,” the biologist and site manager is convinced. It is true that the site management can currently only offer the usual seminars and trade fairs, language courses and regulars’ tables digitally due to the Corona pandemic. “Overall, however, Corona is also a motor for us,” Agnes von Matuschka sums up. The demand for laboratories is particularly high among companies in the field of diagnostics and medical technology, which develop new tests (see below), for example.

The innovation location in Golm will continue to be revived. Construction will begin next year on the four houses of the “Quadratum Potsdam”, with office and laboratory buildings as well as a building with a café, fitness studio and co-working planned. And on the ten-hectare Technology Campus north of the university, the “Institute for Computer Science and Computational Science”, which was completed in 2020, will be followed by other institutes and research-oriented companies.

Text: Isabel Fannrich
Erschienen in: Sonderausgabe “Wissenschaft im Zentrum” Potsdamer Neuste Nachrichten/Tagesspiegel vom 18.12.2021

Image reference: Idyllic location. The Potsdam Science Park is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) © Standortmanagement Golm GmbH/sevens[+]maltry