Endress+Hauser opens innovation cluster

Endress+Hauser has inaugurated its new premises at the Freiburg Innovation Center FRIZ. There, more than 70 employees of the Swiss group of companies specializing in measurement technology are involved in the development of new sensor technologies and software solutions. The various teams work closely together and are embedded in an innovative environment of research institutes, start-ups and other companies.

It is located on the grounds of the Technical Faculty of the University of Freiburg, Germany. The building complex was completed in 2022 after two years of construction and offers more than 12,000 square meters of space for modern and flexible offices and laboratories. Endress+Hauser is the largest tenant and currently occupies around 2,400 square meters of office space on two floors and another 1,000 square meters on the ground floor for chemical and biological laboratories and clean rooms.

The company is bringing together six units in the FRIZ that were previously spread across the city. Together, they combine a wide range of disciplines and technologies: one team is working on solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things, for example to intelligently link software and sensor technology.

Another is working on optical analysis technology that can be used to monitor fermentation processes, for instance. A third team is looking at sensor and measurement technology of the future, including replacing the human sense of smell.

Jobst Technologies, part of the Swiss subsidiary Innovative Sensor Technology IST, develops, produces and sells biosensors. Endress+Hauser BioSense, a joint venture with Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft, a nonprofit research association, specializes in rapid on-site molecular analyses that can be used, for example, in the food & beverage industry. To protect innovations from imitators, a small team of patent specialists is also present on campus.

CEO Matthias Altendorf sees the new location as a “breeding ground for the measurement technology of tomorrow”. The various disciplines on the campus should complement and stimulate each other, and the proximity to research provides additional impetus.

“Innovation often arises at the interfaces, where we enter into exchange with partners from science and industry. By opening up to the university and its institutes, research facilities, spin-offs and other companies, we increase these points of contact.”

Endress+Hauser celebrated the inauguration of the new innovation cluster with numerous guests, the site’s employees and representatives from the shareholder family and the Group. The new rooms in the FRIZ will in future be adorned with a work by glass artist Britta Schmidhauser, which symbolically locates the fields of activity of the various Endress+Hauser units in Freiburg. A summer party in a relaxed atmosphere rounded off the occasion, musically accompanied by the campus band Transistors.