Healthy living and the healthcare industry

The healthcare sector is one of the most employment-intensive and fastest-growing industries in Thuringia, making it a significant part of the regional economy. The specialized field of Healthy Living and Healthcare encompasses the areas of medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food industry, and healthcare management.

The theme of "healthy living" addresses a broad range of industries. Traditional strengths in optics make Thuringia an international innovation leader in microscopy, laser technology, and ophthalmology. New fields such as infection research and aging research have been established and gained international recognition in recent years. And the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products is also proving to be an important sector for Thuringia.

The stakeholders in the food industry are developing expertise in areas such as "healthy nutrition" and "prevention of diet-related cardiovascular diseases." At the same time, they are advancing, on an interdisciplinary level, societal issues of modern life and the challenges of demographic change – such as social participation and health, or workplace health management – and raising public awareness of these topics.

The scientific expertise for this can be found in six higher education institutions – including three universities and three universities of applied sciences – 15 research institutions, two technology and start-up centers, and the Jena University Hospital.

The entire field is characterized by a particular strength of Thuringian research institutions. Here, they have succeeded in attracting further structural R&D initiatives to Thuringia in highly endowed and prestigious calls for proposals, competing with other German regions. These include, among others, the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" (approximately €47 million in funding for infection research) and the "Leibniz Centre for Photonics in Infection Research (LPI)" with a funding volume of €150 million.

Specialization profile for download
Specialization profile for download [jpg file] , 540 KB]

The economy in the specialization field in figures

14.5 Revenue in billion euros

8400 branches

179000 Dependent employees

Data source: own calculation based on TLS data, as of 2023 (figures rounded)

profile

Based on the specialization profile, five topics are currently proving to be potential drivers for this field:

Biophotonics/Bioinstruments
Infections/Diagnostics
Digital Health
Healthy eating
Healthy aging

Areas of expertise

Medical devices
- Medical technology
- In-vitro diagnostics
- Imaging
- microelectronics
- Regulatory Affairs (new MDR, IVDR): Support for SMEs
Diagnostics / Analysis
- decentralized diagnostics/analysis
- Personalized biomarkers
- coordinated infrastructures
- Platform technologies
Biotechnology
- Process development
- Analytics
- Lab-on-a-Chip / Organ-on-a-Chip
- Systems
Pharma
- production
- Pharmaceutical development
- Anti-infectives
- Drug delivery (e.g. nanoparticles)
Healthy living / nutrition
- Prevention
- Aftercare
- Occupational health
- forms of medical care
- Food industry

Cross-sectional areas

Digitization
- Digital health (networked health solutions)
- Big Data
- Artificial intelligence
- Data security
Research
- Infection research
- Sepsis research
- Biophotonics
- Aging research
internationalization
- From Public Health to Global Health
- Networking with EU institutions, international factors and representatives of the FH Nord network
Translation / Exploitation
- New ventures and spin-offs from academia
- Technology transfer

Vision and goals

Health innovations from Thuringia have international appeal and create closed value chains locally through interdisciplinarity:

Existing, nationally renowned centers of excellence and leading positions in analytics, diagnostics, infection research, and medical technology are being expanded and serve as examples for the development of the entire field of specialization. Promising niches are being identified and filled, taking into account the expertise of adjacent fields of specialization.
Through close cooperation between leading research institutions and industry, we are developing innovative anti-infection strategies in Thuringia to combat infectious diseases. This gives participating companies the opportunity to develop and market effective strategies and products that link diagnosis and therapy.

Thuringia is once again becoming an innovative pharmaceutical location.
In the food industry, Thuringia offers healthy, regionally sourced food for Germany and Europe. We are continuously improving our innovative capacity and competitiveness through the development of new processes and products.
As an attractive employer, the healthcare industry in Thuringia enables people to work and live healthily and contributes to added value through the provision of healthcare services.

Cluster and network organizations

medways eV.

medways e. V. is an industry association of leading German research institutes, industrial companies and universities with the aim of developing innovative methods for the diagnosis and therapy of strongly age-related diseases as well as globally marketable medical technology products.

Medways advises companies on the certification of medical devices, the establishment and maintenance of quality management systems according to DIN 13485, and market launch. The association continuously conducts further training events for employees and offers customized in-house training courses. Furthermore, Medways handles complete project management for research projects, from topic selection and grant applications to coordination and controlling.

www.medways.eu

InfectoGnostics – Research Campus Jena

The InfectoGnostics research campus in Jena, a public-private partnership, is pioneering new approaches to infection diagnostics. More than 30 partners from science, medicine, and industry are developing market-ready solutions for the rapid and cost-effective on-site analysis of infections, such as tuberculosis in human medicine, chlamydia in animal diseases, and pathogen diagnostics in food, by integrating technology, application, and manufacturing.

www.infectognostics.de

The Thuringian Nutrition Network eV (TH-ERN)

The Thuringian Food Network (Thüringer Ernährungsnetzwerk e.V.) is an alliance of currently 36 companies and stakeholders in the food industry, giving their sector a strong voice. Supported by the Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Thuringian Ministry of Agriculture, the association focuses on industry-relevant key issues and represents the business community to policymakers. In addition to serving as a platform for linking business and science to facilitate knowledge transfer and promote innovation, the association is dedicated to public relations. Through image campaigns, it aims to increase the visibility of industry representatives in order to positively influence their reputation in the long term and thus open up new markets. This is intended to secure long-term employment and growth for the sector.

www.th-ern.net