Gastkommentar: Deutschland braucht Sonderinnovationszonen
Wir diskutieren über Bürokratieabbau, während andere Länder Innovationssysteme bauen. Das muss sich ändern, fordern die Innovationsexperten Ali Aslan Gümüşay und Volker Hofmann.
Germany possesses world-leading research capabilities, yet lags behind in translating discoveries into practical applications. This dichotomy between research and implementation constitutes an innovative paradox. Groundbreaking research occurs here, but commercialization, scaling, and value creation occur elsewhere. The typical response is to introduce experimental clauses or real-life labs to address this issue.
While these measures are beneficial, they are insufficient. They merely modify individual processes within a system whose fundamental architecture remains unchanged. A malfunctioning operating system cannot be fixed permanently through incremental updates. Eventually, it must be entirely rewritten. The question arises: where should one begin?
The answer lies in the establishment of Special Innovation Zones. These are spatially confined ecosystems where the entire process of startup creation is fundamentally restructured. This encompasses the reformulation of funding rules, permitting procedures, and legal frameworks, rather than merely adjusting individual regulations.
In a Special Innovation Zone, startup teams from research fields such as AI, biotechnology, or robotics come together with permitting authorities, investors, and the first industry customers – all in a single location, with a single point of entry instead of dozens of different administrative levels and procedures. This can reduce the time from inception to a paying customer from eighteen months to less than six.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
