The project builds on an established photonics network in Jena linking a university, non-university research institutes and technology-driven companies. The partners describe these connections as an internationally recognized science and innovation ecosystem spanning basic research, applied research and commercialization. jETZT will examine how that network can operate with fewer legal and administrative barriers. Its planned work covers research equipment, laboratory facilities, scientific services, personnel arrangements, knowledge transfer, taxation, billing and other requirements that arise when institutions work across organizational boundaries. The pilot also seeks to identify practical ways to help companies and start-ups access scientific infrastructure and expertise. Its central method is therefore institutional experimentation: the participants intend to develop cooperative mechanisms in an active research environment and then assess their usefulness, legal viability and potential for wider adoption.

Shared research infrastructure is the pilot’s first major focus. The participating organizations want scientists to gain more straightforward access to major research equipment, laboratory facilities, scientific services and other resources located at different institutions. To support that aim, the partners plan to develop a cooperation platform and establish standardized procedures that comply with legal requirements. The platform and procedures are planned outputs rather than existing systems described as fully operational. The partners also intend to combine their experience so that recurring questions surrounding shared use do not need to be resolved from scratch whenever a new collaboration begins. Their stated aim is to make cross-institutional work easier to organize while retaining legal certainty. Over the five-year period, the project will test whether such arrangements can improve access to resources and allow institutions to coordinate more effectively without requiring each partnership to devise a separate administrative process.

The second major strand of jETZT concerns the people working within the research and innovation system. The project will test career models that cross the boundaries of universities, non-university research institutes and industry. Planned measures include staff mobility, joint professional development and cross-institutional career paths. Researchers may be able to move more readily among basic research, applied research and industry during their careers, or to work simultaneously in different institutional settings. The partners also aim to attract research talent to Jena and Thuringia and to create conditions that encourage researchers to remain in the region over the long term. These are objectives of the pilot rather than demonstrated outcomes. The release does not report measurements of researcher retention, staff movement or the success of the proposed career arrangements, leaving those questions for assessment during the funding period.

Technology transfer is a further component of the experiment. The partners say that simpler access to scientific infrastructure and expertise could help technology-driven companies and start-ups make better use of existing resources and move research findings toward practical applications more quickly. The announcement does not identify a specific technology, market, company or commercial result expected from the work. Instead, jETZT is intended to create pathways linking research, infrastructure, people and ideas more directly, using Jena’s existing connections among scientific, engineering and commercial organizations. By reducing the need to negotiate the same administrative questions for every new project, the partners hope to make collaboration more predictable. Whether these mechanisms actually accelerate knowledge and technology transfer is one aspect the pilot is designed to assess. The proposed benefits are therefore anticipated outcomes, not measured effects reported at the project’s start.

Legal and administrative conditions are central to the initiative because the participating institutions expect the pilot to address obstacles that currently complicate cooperation. Identified subjects include the shared use of infrastructure, staff deployment across institutions, tax requirements and billing procedures. The partners plan to pool their experience, standardize procedures and examine where existing regulations could be adapted to facilitate collaboration. Their stated balance is to make joint work easier without compromising legal certainty. Thuringia’s role includes supporting this process through the relevant ministries and working with the research institutions on the practical conditions that shape cooperation. Rather than merely announcing policy in general terms, the project is designed to address specific administrative questions within photonics research and develop responses that can be tried in day-to-day institutional work. The announcement does not yet provide evidence that the proposed procedures have improved collaboration rates, reduced administrative time or changed economic outcomes.

Thomas Pertsch, Vice-President for Research and Innovation at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, said the project would build on Jena’s tradition of cooperation across organizational and disciplinary boundaries. “We are not only connecting research and infrastructure, but creating new pathways for people and ideas between the University, non-university research institutes and industry,” he said. “Jena will become a testing ground for how a more connected research and innovation system could work in the future.” His remarks place the pilot within the university’s strategic guiding principle, “Light. Life. Liberty. – Connecting People and Ideas.” Under that principle, the university emphasizes connections among people, disciplines and institutions to enable scientific ideas and strengthen their impact in academia, industry and society. jETZT also contributes to that strategy by giving the city’s established institutional network a defined setting in which new forms of cooperation can be tested.

Andreas Tünnermann, Director of Fraunhofer IOF, said the project aims to reduce bureaucratic obstacles and make it easier to translate research into applications. He noted that the partners could build on decades of cooperation among basic research, applied research and industry, particularly in photonics. Christian Tischner, Thuringia’s Minister for Education, Science and Culture, said Jena’s concentration of research institutions and their close links offered an opportunity to test simpler and more effective collaboration in practical terms. The objective, he said, is to develop solutions that give research and knowledge transfer greater flexibility while providing legal certainty. He also said approaches that work in Jena could ultimately be relevant to other research hubs. These statements describe expectations and intended directions. The release provides no comparison with other cities, no survey of participating companies and no before-and-after data demonstrating that the proposed model already outperforms established arrangements.

Transferability will be evaluated alongside the local tests. Universities and non-university research institutes elsewhere in Germany encounter similar organizational questions involving cross-institutional work, research infrastructure and careers that span organizational boundaries. After the Jena initiatives have been implemented, the partners intend to assess them from a research-policy perspective and make the results available across Germany. This process is expected to show which elements are tied to Jena’s particular concentration of photonics institutions and which may be useful elsewhere. The project thus has two connected ambitions: testing practical cooperation mechanisms within a regional research ecosystem and producing reusable approaches for the wider German research and innovation system. Whether the new arrangements prove easier to operate, legally workable, attractive to researchers and beneficial to technology transfer remains an open question. The funding period through June 2031 provides the framework in which those prospective benefits and limitations can be examined.

Subject of Research: A pilot project testing collaborative infrastructure, careers and technology transfer in Jena’s photonics research network.

Article Title: jETZT: Jena tests new models for future research collaboration

Article References: jETZT: Jena tests new models for future research collaboration. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: photonics, research collaboration, Jena, research infrastructure, technology transfer, Fraunhofer IOF, Leibniz IPHT, Volkswagen Foundation, Thuringia, research policy, jETZT, tests