Incubators create the right microclimate for growth. © Fotolia/psdesign1

Fertile ground: How a research incubator works

Seeds need fertile ground if they are to grow into viable plants. The same applies to business ideas – they also need the right environment if they are to find their way onto the market. Accelerators, incubators, and similar initiatives play a big role in the start-up context. But what do the terms actually mean, and how do they work in practice?

The terms “accelerator” and “incubator” are not entirely distinct from one another. In commerce, an incubator is designed to help young companies develop their business idea to the point that it is ready for market. Accelerators, on the other hand, exist to provide newly launched companies with a leg-up, for example in the form of a type of boot camp. In most cases, they give advice and provide entrepreneurial knowledge and specialist expertise. In addition, they often equip businesses with office space and technical infrastructure. They might also introduce the company to potential investors at the end of the funding period. These boot camps are mostly limited to a few months, during which time the participants work intensively on developing the business idea into a market-ready product or a service.

One example of such an initiative is Bayer HealthCare’s research incubator. It is called CoLaborator – from the Latin laborare and the French and English collaboration. Since May 2014, the Bayer subsidiary’s site in Berlin-Wedding has been offering young firms involved in the chemical and biosciences an extensive laboratory and office infrastructure – conveniently located in the immediate vicinity of the company’s own research facilities. The start-ups remain independent, but can also, in addition to the abovementioned infrastructure, gain access to Bayer’s global network. This includes, for instance, use of the CoLaborator at Bayer’s site in Mission Bay, San Francisco, a facility that was set up in 2012. With its two research incubators, Bayer HealthCare aims to help young life-science businesses set up their research laboratories, and to create a fertile environment for innovation. The corporation also aims to be the first point of contact for young businesses searching for possible cooperation partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

An ultra-modern, 800 m2 building on the Bayer site has 420 m2 available for laboratory work. The idea is that young entrepreneurial spirit and pharmaceutical expertise should complement each other. Bayer does not set any strict boundaries. In addition to interesting drug-discovery technologies, preferred research areas include oncology, gynaecology, cardiology and ophthalmology.

 “Start-ups pay us rent and in return they get their own 40 m2 laboratory and 20 m2 of office space – all fully equipped and furnished,” says Jörg Knäblein, head of the Berlin CoLaborator. The rent also includes use of a conference room, a common room and kitchen, the table-tennis table and the beach volleyball court. Particularly beneficial for the start-ups is the technical infrastructure – autoclave, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), cold room – that Bayer provides on its Wedding site. “From backup systems such as replacement freezers to a company fire department, we provide start-ups with an environment that they would not otherwise have access to,” says Knäblein, who is also responsible for technology scouting at Bayer.

CoLaborator rental contracts run for three years. Since August, however, the CoLaborator has been hosting two start-ups that will only spend about 100 days there. The companies are two of the five digital health start-ups from this year’s Grants4Apps Accelerator. This Bayer HealthCare programme accepts founders who have innovative software, hardware, technologies or processes that will contribute to improving health outcomes or pharmaceutical processes.

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