The Stuttgart region – Europe’s leading location for innovation and high-technology

With € 6.5 billion of investment in research and development and 4,750 patent registrations every year, the Stuttgart region is one of the European powerhouses of research and development.

Key sectors include mechanical engineering, automotive construction, electromobility, environmental technology, IT and creative industries. 14 regional centres of expertise in high technology provide an effective link between science and practical application. Trade fairs with accompanying congresses such as AMB, Motek, Blechexpo, i-Mobility, IT & Business, BATTERY + STORAGE, Control or Composites Europe are meeting places for international experts. The f-cell congress and the Virtual Efficiency congress  were born in the region and have enjoyed continuously rising attendances ever since. The future  belongs to environmentally friendly technologies, which are also the focal point of innovation research in the region.

The University of Stuttgart is one of the country’s leading universities and, with 36 institutes, home to Germany’s largest Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Its high-performance computing centre houses the second fastest vector computer in Europe. The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Geodesy is the largest of its kind in Europe with 14 institutes.

The largest and most important sector in Stuttgart is automobile construction. In addition, the region  surrounding the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany’s strongest economic state, is renowned for its unique mechanical engineering cluster, which is unrivalled anywhere in the world. Baden-Württemberg is considered the world’s leading region for production technology. Further innovative
sectors include mechatronics, nano and laser technology, surface, packaging and energy technologies. World-famous companies such as Bosch, Porsche, Daimler, Trumpf,Festo, Stihl, Schuler, Dürr, Lapp and Kärcher have their homes here. Machine tools and special machines “made in Stuttgart” have an excellent world-wide reputation.

Open source software, virtual reality, visualisation, simulation, satellite communications and radio frequency identification (RFID) are particular local strengths in the area of information and communication technology. The CARS-IT initiative brings together IT service providers and users from the automobile sector. IBM, HP and Altair Engineering have their German headquarters in the city.