Visiting the Innovation Day for SMEs 2026

The Innovation Day for SMEs 2026, held on 11 June in Berlin, demonstrated just how diverse research can be. All exhibiting companies and institutes contributed with great commitment and passion to making research visible and tangible. The variety of projects on display ranged from medical technology, sensor technology and textile electronics to new materials, production technologies, and energy, environmental and mobility solutions.

Once again, Innovation Day was a special opportunity for us to present our research not only to a specialist audience, but also to people from a wide range of other sectors. This exchange beyond our own field is particularly valuable, as it broadens our perspective on our own work, reveals new potential applications and shows where research can have an impact beyond its familiar environment.

At the same time, the day provided an opportunity to give the people who support, enable and politically accompany research projects a direct insight into the results of their work. Using our highly flexible EMG cuff as an example, we were able to demonstrate how funded research can lead to concrete technologies that may in future be used in rehabilitation, diagnostics and assistive systems.

Looking beyond our own area of expertise was particularly inspiring. The developments in textile electronics from the ITM at TU Dresden and the STFI Chemnitz, as well as upcoming innovations in the field of high-resolution electronic arrays from TU Chemnitz, showed how close many research ideas already are to practical application. It was precisely this combination of presenting, trying things out, reconnecting and thinking ahead that made Innovation Day so valuable for us.