• © Hoch3Media via Unsplash

    © Hoch3Media via Unsplash

    30.03.2026

    A new Future Site for Berlin: The Health Innovation Quarter in Mitte

At the heart of Brain City Berlin, a new Future Site is taking shape: the Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte. Here, science, industry and startups are working together on the health innovations of the future. The initiative was founded by Charité and the company Bayer, who are jointly creating a powerful innovation network that enriches the capital.

On 26 March 2026, Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey officially designated the Health Innovation Quarter in Berlin-Mitte as the city's newest Future Site. The aim is to bring research, development and clinical application closer together, and to make the transfer of medical innovations into practice more effective. Brain City Berlin now has twelve such hubs, forming a network of innovation-driven science and technology locations across the city.

Five kilometres of future

The hub stretches across approximately five kilometres, from the Charité-Mitte campus along the Spree canal and Humboldthafen, through the Bayer site between Nordhafen and Müllerstraße, to the Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum. Even before its official designation, this area had established itself as an internationally visible centre for health innovation. The aim now is to make it even easier for companies and spin-offs from around the world to find the best conditions for developing their ideas, testing them rapidly and translating them into market-ready therapies.

Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, said: "Berlin's Future Sites stand for what makes our capital's economy distinctive: innovative strength, collaboration and diversity. This is where business, science and civil society come together to develop solutions for the future. The Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte demonstrates the successful close integration of cutting-edge research and industry, and is an important beacon for the health economy. As the state of Berlin, we are promoting the networking of our Future Sites together with the federal government. The addition of this twelfth hub sends a strong signal about our city's capacity for the future."

A high-performance ecosystem

The new Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte has a mission to set standards for the sustainable strengthening of Berlin as a business location. With a clear focus on health innovation, it creates a high-performance ecosystem that covers the entire value chain. The close integration of research, development, manufacturing and clinical application, in particular through the cooperation between Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Bayer AG, embodies the ideal connection between science, research and industry. The hub, which has an international reach, also lays the foundation for stronger networking among all stakeholders and for public dialogue about scientific progress in the health sector.

"The close partnership between Charité and Bayer AG reflects a powerful combination of academic medicine and industrial innovation. Together, we are not only strengthening the development of new therapies, but also making an important contribution to the economic dynamism and international competitiveness of Berlin as a location," said Astrid Lurati, Chief Financial and Infrastructure Officer at Charité.

Berlin as a leading location

The Future Site aims to position Brain City Berlin as a leading destination for prevention, personalised medicine and novel treatment approaches, including gene and cell-based therapies. It will serve as a hub for world-class research institutions and ambitious startups in the field of modern medicine and science.

"The designation as a Future Site hub strengthens the visibility of the emerging health innovation ecosystem in Berlin-Mitte. The goal of all those involved is to accelerate the development of new therapies and technologies on-site. We are convinced that the emerging infrastructure and the networking of companies and research institutions will form the foundation for future innovations. For everyone involved, becoming Berlin's twelfth Future Site is a strong signal of what has already been achieved, and an additional incentive for future success," said Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and Head of the Pharmaceuticals Division.

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