Hightech-Zone Villigen

Science meets industry

With the initialization of the Hightech-Zone Villigen (HTZ) the Paul Scherrer Institut aims at strengthening its contacts and exchange with high-tech industry. Particularly in joint research projects the short distances between partners will improve the quality of the collaboration and the effectiveness of the know-how exchange. The proximity to PSI enables the tenants of the HTZ to make use of the existing competencies at PSI in various fields of science and engineering. Through these benefits, PSI has the objective to foster the innovation power in Switzerland.

A location with future

The Hightech-Zone Villigen will be located on a space of 38’000 m2 within the immediate vicinity of the Paul Scherrer Institute. In this newly developed area, a valuable interface between science and the private sector of the high-tech industry is being created. The close proximity to top research and the opportunity to utilise valuable PSI infrastructure will facilitate a direct exchange between science and industry. The collaboration and interaction between research, development and scientific application offers a huge potential for all parties involved, a potential to be realised in simple and direct ways; this is the idea behind the Hightech-Zone Villigen. In this role, the HTZ considers itself a catalyst for innovation with mentionable international appeal brought forth by the Swiss high-tech scene.

Opportunities for enterprises

The Hightech-Zone Villigen is the ideal location for various types of businesses active in technology-related fields. As a consequence, the national and international high-tech industry will find opportunities to cooperate with PSI on a technological as well as a scientific level, be this through infrastructure projects (such as technology developments and collaboration with the SwissFEL project) or research projects per se. In addition, the HTZ offers optimal conditions for businesses that want to utilise PSI’s large-scale research facilities for the benefit of services (for analysis at the beam-lines of the Swiss Synchronous Light Source, SLS, for example). Obviously, it will be ideal to have a location in the Hightech-Zone for spin-off companies which are expected to emerge from the PSI research. Thanks to the Hightech-Zone , direct access to the research facilities is allowed for those businesses. The conglomeration of the various businesses will create a know-how pool with huge innovative potential, and with a multitude of networking nodes for businesses in the Hightech-Zone.

Advantages of the location

For those businesses who wish to settle in the Hightech-Zone, the immediate vicinity to the PSI Institute is particularly attractive in a number of ways:

• short, uncomplicated paths within collaborations
• direct and informal access to researchers of various fields of expertise
• opportunities to attend scientific, public events of PSI
• the use of PSI’s high levels of competence including in technological areas (manufacturing technology, ventilation, cooling, vacuum)
• direct recruitment of specialists (doctoral candidates, postgraduates)
• gain in reputation due to the close proximity to an internationally renowned research institute

The Paul Scherrer Institute plans to incorporate own infrastructure into the Hightech-Zone, which is highly attractive to the participating tenants:

• workshop with high-tech machinery (which includes expertise in construction, manufacturing and quality testing)
• clean room-infrastructure (synergies with manufacturing in the micro and nano scale)
• supporting infrastructure (such as restaurant, visitor reception)