Berlin Adlershof: Record growth despite the shortage of skilled workers and multiple crises

The Berlin Adlershof Science and Technology Park continued to grow significantly in 2022 despite various interlocking crises. Sales and budget increased to EUR 3.63 billion (2021:  EUR 3.21 billion), up 13% on the previous year. It is particularly noteworthy that more than 28,000 people (2021:  24,500) now work in the Adlershof Science and Technology Park. This was 14% more than in 2021. The increase in employment proves that Adlershof companies are generally successful in attracting skilled workers despite the shortage of them. In addition, around 950 trainees were employed in Adlershof in 2022, plus around 6,600 students.¹

The Adlershof Science and Technology Park is divided into three areas: Core area, growth area and media city.

In the core area of the Science and Technology Park, sales of the approximately 580 companies increased by 6.3% to 1.13 billion Euro. The number of employees rose by 6.8% to just under 9,100. In addition, there were around 330 trainees. After declining in the previous year, the number of companies in the core area has now risen again. Sales and budgets of the approximately 480 companies and institutions in the growth area increased significantly for the second year in a row in 2022, totaling 1.67 billion Euro. The number of employees rose by almost 14% to 11,400. There were also around 520 trainees (among others with several providers of inter-company training).¹

In the media city, the number of people employed by the 210 companies rose to over 3,600, after remaining virtually constant in the previous year. In addition, there were 93 trainees. At the same time, sales climbed by 14% to 456 million Euro. The number of so-called permanent freelancers (from 780 to 1,150), which had recently plummeted, developed remarkably positively. The fact that the subsidies drawn in the media city declined again in 2022 and at the same time the number of freelancers increased again suggests that the industry at the location is recovering from the consequences of the Corona pandemic.

The funding or third-party funding of the Adlershof-based institutions of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) amounted to 34 million Euro, the basic funding was 52 million Euro. The budget for the non-university institutes was 214 million Euro; the third-party funds at 75 million Euro. The total number of employees in the scientific institutions was 3,900.² The companies in the Science and Technology Park continue to assess the business development for 2023 as positive. Around half of them expect sales to increase, while 41% of companies expect sales to remain the same. Only one in ten companies is forecasting a decline in sales. In the previous year, 14% of companies were still pessimistic about the future.

In the evaluation of the so-called soft location factors, the image of Adlershof as a high-tech location was rated as very good and at the same time significant, as in previous years. Despite the fact that Adlershof companies are also affected by the shortage of skilled workers, they continue to rate their access to qualified workers at the location as good. The 14% increase in the number of employees is impressive proof of this. In addition, the companies were generally satisfied with their rental situation despite the burden of rising energy prices.

As in the previous year, the companies in the Adlershof Science and Technology Park were surveyed regarding their attitude to the topic of working from home. Overall, most cannot imagine employees completely giving up working from home – neither the employees themselves nor the management. Overall, 64% (2021:  56%) of employees support working outside the office one to three days a week. As in the previous year, 64% of the management board members consider this to be purposeful. While the number of employees who want to work every day on site at the company continues to decrease (2022: 26.7 %; 2021: 32 %), there is a slightly increasing proportion of managers who completely reject working from home for their employees (2022: 29.5 %; 2021: 28.5 %). Overall, a high level of location loyalty dominates. Around half of all managers and employees consider working four or more days a week in Adlershof to be beneficial.

In addition, the survey also determined the relevance of personal encounters for various fields of action in the companies. Despite the frequently expressed desire to work from home on a daily basis, direct exchange was given great importance across all categories. Companies see the greatest added value of personal contacts with regard to employee retention and loyalty as well as the motivation and well-being of employees. This is followed directly by the establishment of business relationships, the exchange of knowledge and teaching, as well as creativity and brainstorming. The Adlershof companies would like to see even stronger local cooperation, especially when it comes to skilled workers, training and further education.

According to Roland Sillmann, Managing Director of WISTA Management GmbH, this situation is constantly resulting in new areas of focus for the operating company. In doing so, it is important to live up to social responsibility and to focus on the employees of the Technology park in a comprehensive manner: “Until a few years ago, our focus was on helping the location to grow economically in order to reach a critical mass – with success. Since 2018, Adlershof has increasingly focused on advancing solutions for the so-called Grand Challenges. In this way, the location lives up to its responsibility as Germany’s leading technology park to develop solutions to challenges such as climate change or the scarcity of resources. In this way, we also attract and retain talented people at the location who are looking for meaningful work with which they can identify, and who find this in the Adlershof companies and institutes.”

Sillman explains: “As the operator, we also see our task as continuously shaping the growing Adlershof Technology Park so that it also remains attractive as a location. The survey results encourage us in our plan to upgrade it even further for employees. A future-oriented working environment requires opportunities for interaction and networking with other stakeholders, modern and appealing workspaces, and an inspiring environment. This is the only way we can attract the bright minds and well-trained specialists who ultimately make Adlershof what it is. They should be happy to come to work, be happy to stay here and exchange ideas with one another. If this continues to function in the long term, we will have an unbeatable locational advantage in times of a shortage of skilled workers – in conjunction with the attractiveness of the capital region. This ultimately benefits the Adlershof companies, for whose entrepreneurial achievements I have the highest respect in the persistently difficult conditions caused by the crisis.” 

Stephan Schwarz, Senator for Economics, Energy and Enterprises, emphasizes the relevance of the performance of the Adlershof companies for the Berlin economy: “Berlin has also proven to be very robust in the past year of multiple crises. At 2.5 percent, economic growth was significantly higher than in the country as a whole. Of all the Federal states, we achieved the top position in the creation of new jobs and also the highest percentage growth in new companies. Adlershof is an excellent example of Berlin’s economic success. Here, the power that arises from the interlocking of scientific institutions and business becomes visible. Here we see how the transfer of research into innovative products succeeds and how knowledge becomes a world market leader. Future locations like Adlershof are the main drivers of economic development in Berlin and the entire metropolitan region.”

Prof. Dr. Lech Suwala, Professor for urban and regional economics at the Technische Universität Berlin, adds: “The Adlershof Science and Technology Park was once again able to present astonishingly positive figures in times of crisis. The combination of three dimensions as part of a long-term strategy on the part of the location management made a significant contribution: administrative, technological and spatial.
At the administrative level, there is a visionary location strategy that actively shapes growth against the backdrop of Grand Challenges and adequate new settlements. The location thereby offers well-trained top executives exciting and meaningful jobs in cutting-edge technology fields. Technologically, the core of Adlershof consists of SMEs which, as market leaders in niche markets of these cutting-edge technologies, manufacture highly specialized products with a high vertical range of manufacture and are therefore more resilient to supply bottlenecks in global value chains. In terms of spatial events, Adlershof is now much more than a science and technology park on a green field. It is an independent and lively district that promotes the endogenous development of the location not only through technology centers, but also by means of the quality of life for the local people.”

Prof. Dr. Christoph Schneider, Vice President for Research at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, connects the development of the Technology Park with the scientific institutions: “The focus of the Adlershof Science and Technology Park on qualitative growth is fully supported by Humboldt-Universität at the Adlershof Campus, and it contributes to this goal in close coordination side by side with the non-university research institutes and WISTA.
In addition to creative and smart people and an environment with diverse opportunities for cooperation, science needs excellent infrastructure and attractive spaces for encounters. In the fall of 2022, Humboldt-Universität in Adlershof has therefore opened the new building for the research and development of hybrid materials with, among other things, one of the most modern transmission electron microscopes in the world. With the establishment of the 'Center for the Science of Materials Berlin' (CSMB), we are further expanding the materials science research area. Here, researchers from the HU and the non-university partner institutions at the Adlershof location work together in interdisciplinary teams to develop materials from design to application.
In order to meet the increasing demand in the field of simulation and data processing, we will also start the expansion of an HU-owned high-performance computing cluster in Adlershof in 2023. Twenty years after HU moved into the Adlershof campus in 2003, HU’s largest and most long-term future project in Adlershof is the construction of a multifunctional 'Science Hub' in the middle of the campus. As the 'top address' on the campus, right next to Forum Adlershof, this modern lecture hall building will in future offer state-of-the-art teaching, office and common rooms, opportunities for scientific congresses and spaces for the successful promotion of university spin-offs.”

A network of business and science

Business meets science in the Airport Region Berlin Brandenburg. Here companies find a first-class university and institute-related research base and an environment in which scientific institutions and technology-oriented companies work hand in hand. In other words, the best conditions for developing marketable products out of innovative ideas.

For more information on the economic development of the region's growth industries, business and technology support for companies, investors and scientific institutions, feel free to contact:

Melanie Gartzke I melanie.gartzke(at)airport-region.de

Source: press release Wista Management GmbH (wista.de), "Berlin Adlershof: Record Growth Despite Shortage of Skilled Workers and Multiple Crises", March 27, 2023