This is the Minimal Carbon Site [as of 2022] About the
IT Hotspot Karlsruhe
4400
IT Companies
10.000
Informatics Students
30.000
IT Workplaces
12
Startup Centers
1984
First Email received in Germany
Karlsruhe
A Hub for Digitalization
Life & Work
Karlsruhe – an attractive location for IT-professionals
The fan-shaped city, center of the German legislative system, bicycle city, city of sunshine, a paradise for families and outdoor-lovers – Karlsruhe shows many facets and claims to be the “knowledge factory with savoir vivre”. All these aspects offer many reasons to settle down here for different target groups. So do professionals from the ICT and high-tech branches, to whom Karlsruhe also provides many attractive aspects and causes to stay in the German south-west.
One reason is the high living standard and a persuasive quality of life: The city is green, lively, young and combines the best of modernism and tradition. Besides, Karlsruhe convinces with a flourishing and versatile economic development that attracts ICT professionals of all ages.
The regional ICT branch represents more than 5,000 companies of all sizes within Karlsruhe TechnologyRegion. These companies engage in all possible sub-branches such as gaming, business software or IT security. Furthermore, the ICT scene has close ties to the (digital) creative branch and to the many research institutions and universities established in the area. Given this bandwidth of economic activities it is not surprising that employees do not have difficulties in finding a job that suits their perceptions of how a job should be. And even if they want to change their professional orientation, the ICT scene offers many other options.
Being located close to the other economical, especially production centers of Baden-Württemberg (e.g. Stuttgart,
Rhine-Neckar and the Black Forest), the regional economy is specialized in B2B solutions and application-oriented products. This focus allows for quite some room for manoeuvre in the present age of digitalization. With the development of new and pioneering solutions, Karlsruhe shapes the digital transition – a welcome challenge for every passionate IT professional, and a good point for Karlsruhe.
Studies & Research
Karlsruhe – students and scientists welcome
With ten colleges and universities, the first and largest department of informatics in Germany and extraordinary degree programs such as music informatics and media design, Karlsruhe is internationally renowned and popular as an educational and research location. Fittingly, the city’s higher education institutions regularly claim top positions in respected rankings. 9,000 of Karlsruhe’s current 43,000 students chose computer science and computer science related courses of study.
Students receive various supporting and welcoming services by the city, the students union, and the higher education institutions itself, such as the UNIverse App and the welcome package which offer among other things diverse vouchers and benefits, a semester ticket of the KVV (Karlsruhe Transport Authority) and a ticket to participate in a drawing of bicycles.
With its 25 research and development institutions Karlsruhe is the place to be for research enthusiasts. The topics and fields of research of these institutions are just as multifaceted and wide-ranging as Karlsruhes academic community and therefore only a few are named here in an exemplary way. The FZI Research Center for Information Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is currently taking the lead in setting up the test center for connected and automated driving in Baden-Württemberg. The ZKM | Center
for Art and Media extends the duty of a museum to save art in a unique way as it houses research institutes and laboratories and creates conditions that allow new projects to evolve. Another R&D institution, the KIT, focuses on the topics technique, environment and informatics, and the FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure concentrates for example on information indexing and retrieval, design of interaction and visualization and e-Research.
Founding
Karlsruhe – city of entrepreneurs
Founders and startups in Karlsruhe can rely on a vibrant support structure provided by a comprehensive network consisting of city institutions, clusters and players from different economical branches: the „Gründerallianz Karlsruhe“.
Gründerallianz Karlsruhe was founded in 2013 and ever since offers founders and those interested in founding their own business a unique contact point. All relevant players of the regional startup branch cooperate in this network: actors offering coaching and advice, financial support or knowledge about support programs, incubators offering work-spaces, infrastructure and shared services, networks offering business contacts and access to relevant partners. All these actors are tightly connected and hand on founders to the “right” partner in case they can’t provide the service needed themselves.
Especially startups working in the ICT and high-tech sector can profit from Karlsruhe’s vibrant startup scene. Several incubators are specifically focused on young businesses from these branches and support founders at every stage of business development. Baden-Württemberg’s IT-Accelerator, CyberLab, is also located in Karlsruhe.
The close connection between research institutions, the economy and universities as well as the regional focus on ICT solutions on the one and the traditional engineering sector on the other hand facilitate the development of successful businesses in the ICT and B2B field.
Due to its unique startup and spin-off culture, Karlsruhe is the ideal place for entrepreneurs. The exceptional interconnectedness of all relevant actors enables an easy and quick market entry of innovative ideas and products.
Events & Networks
Karlsruhe – top-class events and supportive networks
Karlsruhe offers numerous events for every taste, for every age-group, and every level of knowledge. Every two years, the Science Festival EFFEKTE provides breathtaking research and experiments to marvel at, to touch and to try for the whole family. In 2016, the CODE_n new.New Festival took place for the first time as a stand-alone festival and chose Karlsruhe’s ZKM | Center for Art and Media as its venue. The festival inspired and enthused its guests with its exhibited innovation, its international start-up contest, its informative workshops and keynotes on digitization, and its unique entertainment. IT-TRANS 2018 showed its audience of experts the latest IT trends and innovation regarding solutions for public transport. The International Conference and Exhibition on IT Solutions for Public Transport closed with record figures. Besides regular major events with an IT focus, multitudinous well-established after work events, such as #nmfka, #digiTALKKA, user group meetings, and round tables combine collective networking, learning, and dining and drinking in a casual atmosphere.
Business networks like CyberForum and institutions like the Chamber of Commerce or DIZ | Digital Innovation Center connect companies, entrepreneurs and founders with public institutions, qualified personnel and other actors, offer advice concerning cooperations and financial support. Thereby they enable SMEs and others to get in touch, enable the exchange of ideas, the implementation of new cooperations and successful collaboration.
Eleven cities and communities furthermore gathered to build the TechnologyRegion Karlsruhe, which focuses on the support and development of the Karlsruhe region as an even more promising location for ICT-businesses. Numerous events and collaborative projects targeting specific but also interdisciplinary topics allow for an uncomplicated and sustainable exchange and knowledge transfer.