20 years of microtechnology for the people

The Mainz Institute of Microtechnology (IMM) is celebrating its 20-year anniversary as a state institution providing a supportive environment for non-university innovations in Rhineland-Palatinate. Microtechnology has found many applications thanks to this institutional interface between science and the economy.

Doris Ahnen, Science Minister, emphasized this in her opening speech: "The IMM is very well linked to universities and other research institutions in this region and well beyond them, and has thus established itself as an excellent service provider for small and mid-sized companies, among other things. The institute has spun off approximately 20 innovative companies that now employ more than 200 people, especially in the high-tech field. The IMM has contributed toward raising the level of workforce qualification in the Rhein-Main region by supplementing the qualifications of well over 1,000 employees, who have subsequently joined companies in this region. For all employees and for independent entrepreneurs - and for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate - this is a successful balance." The Ministry for Science supports the IMM, which is one of the largest, application-oriented research institutes in Rhineland-Palatinate, providing it with approximately EUR 5 million per year.

The IMM started out with no more than 20 employees some 20 years ago and has since then provided proof of its competence in the development of technologies and systems, and their transfer to industry with numerous industrial or public subsidy projects. Today, the IMM, with its 140 employees, is a permanent part of the research landscape in Germany and Europe. The main aim of its project is always the careful use of resources, both from an ecological and an economic point of view.