The cluster
The non-profit organization Ci3 e.V. (financed by state funds until 2012 and then with membership fees) is the central interface between the cluster’s various organizations and partners from industry and academia. Ci3 e.V. is represented by the volunteer board members PD Dr. Özlem Türeci and Prof. Dr. Christoph Huber and the clusters activities are coordinated by our team of project managers and communication experts.
The governing body of Ci3 is supported by the Scientific Advisory Board consisting of independent experts in scientific matters, as well as the Board of Trustees in strategic matters.
The Cluster Region – An innovative medical region with a long history
The Rhine-Main region, historically known as the “pharmacy of the world”, is one of the world’s pharmaceutical and life science regions with the richest tradition.
It is globally recognized today as being one of Germany’s strongest pharmaceutical industry sites. More than 300 companies, including more than 90 focusing mainly on biotechnology, are located in the region.
The world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and corporations such as Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, BioNTech SE, Biotest, Fresenius SE, Merck Serono and Sanofi-Aventis are headquartered here or have a strategically important company site.
The Ci3 region is one of the leading areas in Germany and Europe for biotech and pharma patents. With a turnover of over 20 billion Euros per year, Rhine-Main is one of Europe’s most economically viable life science regions.
The University Hospitals of Frankfurt and Mainz as well as a network of decentralized health care providers, among others the German Center for Cardiovascular Research and the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research, provide the highest quality medical services for large numbers of national and international patients from an extensive geographic area.
Moreover, world class research institutions like TRON, HI-TRON, Institute of Molecular Biology Mainz, Fraunhofer ICT and Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research are located in the region.
Population and Infrastructure
The Rhine-Main region is one of Europe’s largest metropolitan areas. It has a population of 5.7 million and is located in the southern-central part of western Germany, where the Rhine and Main rivers meet. The urban centers of the area include Darmstadt, Frankfurt/Main, Ludwigshafen, Mainz and Wiesbaden.
Thus, the cluster region extends across the German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. As one of Europe’s transportation hubs, the Rhine-Main region has excellent national and international connections via Frankfurt Airport, a very well-developed rail and road network, and access to a major European water thoroughfare, the Rhine. Europe’s second largest financial center is located at the heart of this metropolitan region.