Munich s Smaller

Munich's Smaller "Technology Platforms"

In addition to Munich's considerable clusters for biotechnology, IT, new media, and nanotechnology, the Munich region also hosts smaller "technology platforms" that are being constructed in order to attract companies active in small industry segments from all over Bavaria and Germany to the region. One such technology platform is Merkator Park, which attempts to promote the convergence between navigation, telecommunications, and distance reconnaissance technologies. Merkator Park offers a platform to establish loose cooperations, exchange know-how, and work in an innovation center, all within the environment of the German air and space agency Deutsche Luft- und Raumfahrtsgesellschaft (DLR). ^[22] Even though Merkator covers only a small industry segment, it has been successful in attracting small companies active within this environment to the park in order to form close local networks. Without these networks, many of the small, highly specialized companies would have had serious problems leveraging their competencies as well as developing and commercializing their value proposition. A process of several years is deemed necessary for such a technology platform to reach critical mass, while on the whole, these types of platforms are considered to be an important competitive advantage for a region.