CISPA - Helmholtz Center for Information Security gGmbH and the city of St. Ingbert are taking a joint path towards the digital economy: the partners will establish a settlement and development company to promote the settlement of start-ups on the CISPA Innovation Campus in St. Ingbert. This will create a state-of-the-art innovation campus at the "Alte Schmelz" industrial site.
Young companies, primarily from cyber security, artificial intelligence, and information and communications technology, will operate here. "This is a great opportunity for St. Ingbert," explains Mayor Dr. Ulli Meyer. "With CISPA, we will have a renowned research center for cybersecurity and data protection in a mid-sized city. This will allow us to become an attractive center for the digital economy that will generate attraction not only in Saarland but all of Europe."
CISPA is attracting more and more international researchers to Saarland. Meanwhile, 372 people from 38 countries are already working at the Helmholtz Center. "Our mission is to transform our cutting-edge research into economic and social value creation. With the foundation of the development company, we are taking a further step towards the CISPA Innovation Campus, which will make this claim and our success visible in a special way. The 50-million-euro CISPA fund recently launched by Sustainable & Invest GmbH from Frankfurt proves how much trust our excellent research has already garnered. The CISPA founders will find an ideal environment at Alte Schmelz to advance their ideas and transfer them into market-ready products," says CISPA founding director and CEO Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Backes.
The site at Alte Schmelz provides an ideal foundation, with further opportunities available in the form of the Sinn and Woolworth buildings, the Innovation Park at Beckerturm, and other areas. The campus area will create space for companies and provide space for catering and service businesses, creating a genuine campus atmosphere. The company's core tasks are thus to secure the land and develop new utilization concepts and acquire tenants on the one hand and promote spin-offs from CISPA on the other. This groundbreaking project is being implemented by CISPA Innovation Campus St. Ingbert Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH - the intended name of the company. It will take over the coordination between the involved actors and interested investors, tenants, and other stakeholders.
For the time being, the two partners are to be involved in equal shares; participation by other partners such as the state or its subsidiaries is not ruled out. Financial resources will be secured through grants and contributions from privileged partnerships. Likewise, a business plan will be developed.
"The CISPA Innovation Campus will bring many companies and young people or families to St. Ingbert. This can turn our city into a lively, modern IT city," says Mayor Dr. Ulli Meyer, looking to the future.