The IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, also known as Silicon Valley of Germany, is one of the most important locations of the IT and high-tech industry worldwide. It is concentrated in the

Rhine-Main The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...

and

Rhine-Neckar The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle, is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the North ...

metropolitan regions. The IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar is the largest IT cluster in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. 50 percent of the worldwide revenue of the hundred largest European software companies are generated by companies in this region. The Rhine-Main-Neckar region also has one of the most important

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

fintech Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...

, finance and

consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

clusters in Europe. In addition to universities such as

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

and University of Frankfurt and research institutions such as the

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (German: ''Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz'', DFKI) is one of the world's largest nonprofit contract research institutes for software technology based on artificial in ...

and

ATHENE Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of va ...

, software companies such as

SAP SE Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sepa ...

Software AG Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, and the seventh largest in Europe. Software AG is traded on t ...

and

T-Systems T-Systems International GmbH (T-Systems) is an internationally operating service provider for information technologies and digital transformation. The company is part of Deutsche Telekom AG and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. As of 2012, T ...

also have their headquarters in the region.

Importance in the world

In 2010, the French venture capital firm Truffle Capital published in its study "Truffle 100 European Clusters" that the Rhine-Main-Neckar region accounts for 50 percent of the worldwide revenue of the hundred largest European software providers. It compared the Rhine-Main-Neckar region as an IT cluster with Silicon Valley as the "Silicon Valley of Europe". According to this study, the Rhine-Main-Neckar IT cluster combined more than 12.5 billion euros in software-related sales in 2009. The next largest European IT cluster was

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

with 2.4 billion euros. In a 2009 study, the region was compared with IT clusters such as Oulu (Finland),

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

(India) and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. In contrast to the Silicon Valley, the main business area of the companies in the region is

enterprise software Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, ...

.Elbert, Ralf & Müller, Fabian & Persch, D.. (2009). Cluster-Potenzial der Region Südhessen/Rhein Main Neckar zur Entwicklung eines Clusters der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie. According to a study by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, Darmstadt has the best cluster among all EU regions in the emerging industries. Emerging industries means future technologies that the EU attaches particular importance to for growth in Europe. Darmstadt also has the best

cluster in Europe. The

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

region, which partly belongs to the Rhine-Main-Neckar region, ranks second among the biopharmaceutical clusters. The region is one of the most important locations for IT security research worldwide. Darmstadt has the renowned

, the national center for research in security and privacy in Germany and the largest research institute for IT security in Europe. According to an analysis by Startup Genome, a company specialising in the analysis of startup ecosystems, the

region is also home to one of the world's most important startup ecosystems in the field of IT security and

Importance in Germany

The IT cluster Rhein-Main-Neckar is part of the ''Spitzencluster'' Software-Cluster, which also includes other regions. In January 2010, the Software-Cluster won the German government's ''Spitzencluster'' competition, the equivalence to the

German Universities Excellence Initiative The Excellence Initiative of the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scholars at universities, to deepen cooperatio ...

for clusters. The cluster's goal is to enable the transformation of companies into digital companies. This cluster consists of the centers Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern,

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Saarbrücken and

Walldorf Walldorf (South Franconian: ''Walldoaf'') is a town in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. In the eighteenth century, Walldorf was the birthplace of John Jacob Astor, who emigrated and became a promin ...

. Since 2017, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has supported the cooperation between the

and the

with companies and research institutions from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In a competition, the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media awarded Darmstadt the title of ''Digital City'' in 2017. This victory is intended to turn Darmstadt into a digital model city. In 2016, the Federal Ministry of Finance decided to make the region around Darmstadt the pre-eminent hub for the digital transformation of the economy. According to a study by the auditing firm

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

from 2018, 24% of all Fintechs in Germany have settled in the Rhine-Main-Neckar region, with

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

being considered the centre. This makes the Rhine-Main-Neckar region one of the most important locations for the fintech industry in Germany. According to a study from 2013, the Rhine-Main region has the best cluster in Germany in the financial and consulting industry. According to the German Research Foundation (DFG), the

(TU Darmstadt) is one of the best universities in Germany in terms of research in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stud ...

in the natural sciences. According to the report of the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2018, in the period under review from 2014 to 2016 the TU Darmstadt received the highest number of competitive grants in the field of computer science and the University of Mainz the highest number of competitive grants in the natural sciences. In a competitive selection process, the DFG selects the best research projects from researchers at universities and research institutes and finances them. The ranking is thus regarded as an indicator of the quality of research. In a nationwide competition by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the

was honoured as founding university.{{Cite web, url=https://www.exist.de/DE/Programm/Exist-Gruendungskultur/EXIST-Karte-Gruenderhochschulen/inhalt.html, title=EXIST-Gründerhochschulen, website=www.exist.de, language=de, access-date=2019-10-06

Resident universities

* University of Frankfurt *

University of Mannheim The University of Mannheim (German: ''Universität Mannheim''), abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the ''Palatine Academy of Sciences'', ...

* University of Applied Sciences Mainz *

Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences The Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (german: Hochschule Darmstadt), also known as h_da, is a University of Applied Sciences located in Darmstadt, Germany. h_da is part of the IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, the "Silicon Valley of Germany ...

* Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences * RheinMain University of Applied Sciences * Technische Universität Kaiserslautern *

University of Applied Sciences Worms Worms University of Applied Sciences (German: ''Hochschule Worms'') is a business and technology-oriented university of applied sciences in Worms, Germany. Around 3700 students are taught in 38 degree programmes by 74 professors and around 100 ...

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is not located directly in the IT-Cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, but is adjacent to it and has nevertheless contributed to its development.

Resident companies (selection)

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

DE-CIX DE-CIX (Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange) is an operator of carrier- and data-center-neutral Internet Exchanges, with operations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. All DE-CIX activities and companies ...

Merck Group The Merck Group, branded and commonly known as Merck, is a German multinational science and technology company headquartered in Darmstadt, with about 60,000 employees and present in 66 countries. The group includes around 250 companies; the ma ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Germany * Oracle Germany * IBM Germany * Rakuten Kobo Inc. Germany *

Nemetschek Nemetschek Group is a vendor of software for architects, engineers and the construction industry. The company develops and distributes software for planning, designing, building and managing buildings and real estate, as well as for media and ent ...

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...

* Opel * Accenture *

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The comp ...

Computer Sciences Corporation Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...

Crytek Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. ...

* Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe * Isra Vision * Kalypso Media * MAXON *

Schott AG Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is cre ...

* Singulus Technologies *

Terma A/S Terma A/S is a Danish weapon and aerospace manufacturer for both civilian and military applications, and is owned by the Danish company Thrige Holding A/S. It is Denmark's largest company within the aerospace and weapon industry, employing appro ...

* TrekStor *

United Internet United Internet AG is a global Internet services company headquartered in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The company is structured in two business areas, ''Access'' and ''Applications,'' and has a total of 16 brands and numerous subsi ...

Resident research institutes (selection)

* German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence *

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (german: GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) is a federally and state co-funded heavy ion () research center in the Wixhausen suburb of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1969 as th ...

European Space Operations Centre The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and ...

European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's primary ...

* Center for IT Security, Privacy and Accountability

References