Europe's largest industrial research group opens Bangalore office

Attracted by the booming Indian market, Europe's largest application research organisation, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft  will open its Bangalore branch on Tuesday, 30 October.

Fraunhofer, which undertakes research for industry in health, security, communication, energy and the environment, said in a statement, "As a partner to German industry, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft needs to gain experience in the most important production nations – which include India."

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has over 80 research units, including 60 Fraunhofer Institutes, at different locations in Germany, staffed by 20,000, th majority of whom  are qualified scientists and engineers

It has an €1.8-billion annual research budget of which €1.5 billion is generated through contract research. More than 70 per cent of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly financed research projects. Almost 30 per cent is contributed by the German federal and state governments in the form of base funding.

The research group hopes to cater to the research requirements of German business groups like Siemens, Bosch and Hella, which have had a strong foothold in the Indian market for decades.  In 2011, eleven Fraunhofer institutes had been actively working in India.

Prof Dr-Ing Reimund Neugebauer, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, says, ''Beside cooperation with partners of scientific excellence, our focus also lies on following our German and European customers to India. This way, we will be available for our current industry customers as a competent partner, help their Indian suppliers reach the requisite quality standards, and thereby strengthen their ability to compete in the Indian market.''