At a ceremony attended by Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, Baden-Württemberg Governor Winfried Kretschmann and other guests, Bosch officially opened its new research campus in Rennigen. With this campus, Bosch says it wants to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and further enhance its innovative strength. At the new center for research and advance engineering on the outskirts of Stuttgart, around 1,700 creative minds are doing applied industrial research.
“Like a university, our campus brings together many faculties. Here, we want our researchers to do more than just think about what the future could bring. We want them to be successful entrepreneurs as well. Renningen is Bosch’s own Stanford. And at the same time, the center is an expression of our faith in Germany as a technology location,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management.
The company has invested around €310 million ($352.58 million) in the new location. The research campus, whose motto is “Connected for millions of ideas,” is the hub of Bosch’s global research and development network.
Innovations for better quality of life
The hope for the future is that even more innovations will be created in Renningen that improve quality of life. The campus brings together many disciplines from science and technology. Whether electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, analytics, chemistry, physics, biology, or microsystems technology in Renningen, a total of 1,200 associates in corporate research and advance engineering, plus 500 PhD students and interns, are now working on the technical challenges of the future. Up to now, these researchers were spread over three locations in the greater Stuttgart area.
Technological breadth in research and advance engineering
In the special campus atmosphere, Bosch’s pioneering minds will work on both new products and innovative manufacturing methods. Their work will focus on areas such as software engineering, sensor technology, automation, driver assistance systems and battery technology, as well as on improved automotive powertrain systems.
One area that is becoming increasingly significant is software expertise particularly for Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. As for Bosch itself, Denner believes it is well prepared for the connectivity trend. For example, the company is not only the global market leader for micromechanical sensors, but has also been extending its software competence for some years now. The Bosch Group now employs more than 15,000 software engineers. Three thousand experts are working on the IoT alone. Bosch say it especially sees huge business potential in the services that will arise as a result of connectivity. “If we do not want to let others seize these opportunities, then we have to be even faster and less risk-averse than before,” said Denner. “At an earlier stage than ever before, our engineers have to think like businesspeople. The things that are technically feasible should not only excite our researchers, but our future customers as well.”
