The Software-Cluster covers a wide area in the southwest of Germany, and includes the key software development centers in Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken and Walldorf. The cluster region therefore spans four different federal states (Hessen, Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland) – which goes to show that corporate networks are not restricted by political borders. Important IT and software clusters already exist in their own right within each of these four individual sub-regions, and some of these clusters have alternating focal points. However, there is one common element within the overall cluster region – software expertise - above all in relation to corporate software. The cluster region is justifiably referred to as the cradle of corporate software, as it contains a large number of innovative companies as well as leading computer science faculties and research institutions, making it the Silicon Valley of Europe.

Bundled knowledge

The cluster region comprises four corporate networks within the cluster sub-regions (Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken), the members of which include universities, polytechnics, Max-Planck institutes, Fraunhofer institutes and also two locations of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) with many thousands of computer scientists. These research and training institutions enjoy a high level of recognition at an international level, which has been corroborated by top positions in the Excellence Initiatives of the German Research Community (DFG) (Cluster of Excellence in Saarbrücken, graduate schools within the scope of the Excellence Initiatives in Darmstadt and Saarbrücken, University of Excellence in Karlsruhe). This "excellence" in relation to IT and computer science has a long history in the cluster region: the universities in Saarbrücken, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe were already pioneers in the areas of information technology and business informatics more than 30 years ago. They can therefore be viewed as the founders of such disciplines in German universities. What's more, renowned research institutions, such as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern, Max-Planck Institutes, numerous Fraunhofer Institutes and also the Research Center for Information Technology in Karlsruhe, have been established over time in the direct vicinity of these universities.

World-class software ecosystems

The knowledge from these universities does find its way into the business world in the cluster region. The founders of the largest software company in Europe, SAP AG, are all graduates from universities in the cluster region, as are the founders of the second largest software company in Germany, Software AG. The same applies to numerous small and medium-sized software enterprises within the region. The cluster region is therefore an area with an intense amount of knowledge, where software research, software development and software sales go hand in hand and also build on one another. This strong academic world, with world-class researchers and a sufficient amount of software companies of all shapes and sizes, has resulted in the creation of a software ecosystem of global importance, which most definitely stands out at an international level. And thanks to setting up of new companies and the availability of both scientific and business resources within the area, the capabilities and performance of the Software-Cluster region are being expanded on a continuous basis.