5 Oct 2026
Germany debates bureaucracy reduction while other countries are building innovation systems. In our guest commentary for Handelsblatt, Prof. Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüsay and Volker Hofmann argue that this needs to change and call for Special Innovation Zones.
Germany is a world leader in research, yet commercialization, scaling, and value creation too often take place elsewhere. In their guest commentary “Deutschland braucht Sonderinnovationszonen”, Prof. Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüşay and Volker Hofmann argue that addressing this innovation paradox requires more than reducing bureaucracy or introducing individual regulatory exemptions.
They propose establishing Special Innovation Zones: geographically bounded ecosystems in which the conditions for bringing research-based innovation to market can be redesigned more fundamentally. Funding rules, approval procedures, and legal frameworks would be considered together, while research teams in areas such as AI, biotechnology, and robotics could work more directly with public authorities, investors, and first industrial customers.
The zones are not intended as regulation-free spaces. They would provide controlled environments where new rules and processes can be tested in practice, with researchers working alongside founding teams and public authorities. Successful approaches could then inform wider institutional change and help research-based innovation move more quickly into practice.