Brandenburg Economic Development Board (ZAB) is the one-stop-agency supporting investors, existing enterprises and other stakeholders in the federal state of Brandenburg. Merged in 2001 from the former T.IN.A (technology agency), the WFB (investors support and international business) and the BEA (energy agency), ZAB is running as a commercial company but receives subsidies from the federal state of Brandenburg. About 90 employees of the ZAB are working in branch teams as follows: Logistic and services, Aerospace, Energy and Environment, Life sciences, Industry and Automotive, Microelectronics and ICT. The personnel consist mainly of skilled (academic) consultants with significant experiences in their specific sectors.
The offer of ZAB comprises:
Advice on all aspects of corporate establishment.
Support for innovative, technology-oriented, complex start-up projects.
Promotion of innovation and technology.
Technology transfer between science and business.
Advice on subsidies and help with processing of applications.
Participation in regional, national and international trade fairs.
Energy consultancy and energy management.
Support for foreign marketing activities.
The ZAB is responsible for the technical evaluation of proposals for regional RTD-funds.
The main projects developed by ZAB are (innovation related selection):
Project executing organisation for regional RTD-funds.
European Networks: OPET (until 2004), IRC, EIC.
FP-Innovation projects (ETI “CleanTec SME”, RIS/RITTS “Brandenburg”; RIS-NAC “Innov-Axis Hungary”, “RIS Wielkopolska”).
Brainshell - IPR exploration services.
INTERREG IIIC project 3CIP (3 country innovation push, with CZ and PL).
CRAFT regional contact point.
BIOMAC - Technology Transfer with Russia.
BEGIN – Support of (innovative) Start-Ups.