All in all, the supplier of technology and services is investing some 310 million euros in the new location on the outskirts of Stuttgart. “Renningen will be the incubator for the innovations that will shape the future of our company,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, and continued: “Research and development create the technical conditions for solving the great challenges of our age, in line with our strategic imperative ‘Invented for life’.” In his address, Winfried Kretschmann, the minister-president of Baden-Württemberg, stressed the crucial importance of an innovative and highly productive business sector for the future of the state. “I believe it is extremely important that centres such as this one, at which highly qualified technicians and engineers come up with the products of tomorrow, are located in Baden-Württemberg,” Kretschmann said.

By 2015, the Bosch Group will have set up the new nerve centre of its global research network in Renningen. A total of roughly 1,200 associates will research into new materials, methods, and technologies, and develop new systems, components, and manufacturing processes. On a plot covering some 100 hectares, 14 buildings are being constructed. When completed, they will offer a total floor space of nearly 11,000 square metres. In the current phase, following the model of a university campus, the buildings will be spaced generously over the northern part of the site. In this way, Bosch wants to create attractive workplaces and a stimulating environment in which creativity and collaboration can flourish. “Innovations require a functioning infrastructure, capable universities, and the common will to doggedly pursue new paths,” Denner said. The decision to build in Renningen was, he added, a clear sign of commitment to the Stuttgart region and to Baden-Württemberg as a technological location.

Software development for the interconnection of devices and systems is now a focal point of research and advance engineering work at Bosch. On the “internet of things and services,” more than 50 billion devices and systems will be communicating with each other by 2025. Bosch believes that this interconnection is one of the major technical and economic developments of the future. In light of the practically unlimited possibilities of data exchange in the future, Denner said: “We stand at the threshold of a turning point in history, if not a new industrial revolution.” For Bosch, this gives rise to a large number of new business models, which will form a network of extremely diverse services. Bosch intends to exploit this potential for growth, Denner said.

Bosch files 16 patents per working day on average. This makes it one of the world’s most innovative companies. In Germany, it ranks first for patent applications. This year, the supplier of technology and services will spend an expected 4.6 billion euros for research and development relating to new systems, components, methods, and technologies – 400 million euros more than in the previous year. In 2011, roughly half its research spending went into products that conserve resources and protect the environment. By the end of 2012, Bosch expects to be employing a total of some 41,000 researchers and engineers. Over the past 20 years, the Bosch Group has spent some 50 billion euros for research and development worldwide, most of this sum in Germany.