The Zuse-Gemeinschaft was founded on 29 January 2015 in Berlin. With the help of 74 business-related research institutes from all over Germany networks and projects can find each other here. The non-profit institutes of the Zuse Society are the practical and creative idea givers for German SMEs (small and medium enterprises). They translate findings from science into usable technology and through this they prepare the ground for the innovations that make german SMEs successful worldwide. Research that matters is the slogan of the Zuse Society. Research also has a middle-class sector that is united here. The Zuse Society highlights the successes of the independent, non-profit member institutes in a combined way to get adapted funding models at the federal level that make a practice-oriented pre-research, concrete project implementations and investments for the institutes possible. As one of the two executive members, Dr. sc. Dipl.-Ing. Frank-Andreas Weber also represents FiW on the Zuse Association's Executive Committee.
From the Zuse Position Paper:
The large number and diversity of small and medium-sized companies is both a characteristic and the foundation of the German economy. More than 99 percent of companies in Germany belong to the SME sector. More than half, about 55 percent, of the total net value of all German companies is produced by the SME sector. About 60 percent of all employed persons work in SMEs, including more than 80 percent of all trainees. Nowhere else are there so many hidden champions - mostly owner-managed SMEs that hold their own business on the world markets without making big noises about it. German SMEs are world leaders. Moreover, there are reasons for this: If you want to succeed in the global competition, you always have to be one step ahead. And only those who are innovative can leave the others behind - this is true not only, but especially for medium-sized companies. Innovation and quality are the twins that make them strong. And this requires research and development that reaches the business community.