Laurin Schmid
Laurin Schmid
VDI/VDE-IT; Laurin Schmid
Company
VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH (VDI/VDE-IT) is the ideal partner for enabling innovation and successfully advancing future-oriented topics. For more than four decades, we have supported politics, businesses, and science in sustainably strengthening Germany and Europe as leading centres of innovation.
VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH is one of the leading service providers in the field of innovation promotion and technology policy. As a project management agency, we accompany complex projects throughout the entire innovation process – from the initial idea to implementation and evaluation.
Our administrative and scientific experts are experienced funding professionals.
They analyse market situations and emerging future topics, provide strategic advice to our clients, and professionally implement funding programmes on behalf of the German federal government, the federal states, and the European Union. In addition, we establish and manage offices, liaison offices, and networks at the intersection of research, business, and politics.
What sets us apart: Our holistic approach to projects, our solution-oriented mindset, and our ability to develop tailored concepts for each assignment– reliably, transparently, and backed by many years of experience.
Locations
Our employees at VDI/VDE-IT work together in interdisciplinary and multinational teams. We cover a broad spectrum of topics – from natural and engineering sciences to economics, social sciences, as well as administrative and legal disciplines.
This diversity of perspectives and skills is a key factor in the success of our work. Experienced experts and committed young professionals contribute their knowledge and fresh ideas alike – benefiting of our customers in politics, research, industry, and business in Germany and abroad.
With locations in Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Erfurt, Hannover, Munich, and Stuttgart, as well as our subsidiary FILINA Innovation + Technik GmbH in Frankfurt (Oder), we have a nationwide presence and are firmly rooted in the regions.
We believe that successful projects are built on clear communication, flexibility, and trust. That is why we rely on transparent structures, short communication channels, and close collaboration with our clients. Instead of standard solutions, we develop tailored concepts precisely aligned with each project’s specific requirements.
We see diversity as an opportunity and an asset for our company. Fairness and respect are core values that we regard as integral to our corporate culture. That is why we are committed to creating a working environment in which exclusion and prejudice have no place. To send a clear message of tolerance and unity to the wider world, we have signed the “Diversity Charter”.
Another key to the success of our work is our strong and reliable network. Through close ties to politics, public administration, science, and industry, we create spaces for exchange and cooperation. As a project management and liaison agency, we bring relevant stakeholders together, foster knowledge transfer, and support the development of innovative ideas – both nationally and internationally.
Interdisciplinary specialists combine experience, new ideas, and international perspectives.
Clear processes, open dialogue, and tailor-made solutions define our way of working.
We connect politics, science, public administration, and businesses to drive innovation.
Certified processes, continuous training, and high standards ensure reliable results.
Sustainable, fair, and forward-looking – for people, projects, and society.
Diversity, appreciation, and equal opportunities shape our culture.
VDI/VDE-IT in numbers
We take a holistic view of innovation – both from the capital in Berlin and on the ground in many region.
Well-founded political and economic decisions require a solid knowledge base. Since 2007, this has been provided by the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) within VDI/VDE-IT. Our experts analyse technological, economic, and societal developments at an early stage, identify emerging trends, and derive actionable recommendations.
Our focus includes questions such as:
With studies, analyses, and evaluations, we support evidence-based decision-making and contribute to actively and responsibly shaping the future.
Company history
The introduction of new technologies is a challenge for many small and medium-sized enterprises. To support them, the Federal Ministry of Research initiates the establishment of a technology centre. As a department of the VDI, the VDI-TZ, founded on April 1, is tasked with promoting technological development in the fields of microelectronics and physical technologies. At the beginning, 26 employees work at Ernst-Reuter-Platz in Berlin.
RomanR/Adobe Stock
The VDI-TZ becomes the project management agency of the Federal Ministry of Research for the programme “Introduction to Microelectronics for SMEs with Structural Adjustment Difficulties.” Over time, the company takes on project management for more and more technology-oriented funding programmes.
bramgino/Adobe Stock
The federal government launches a special programme to promote the application of microelectronics with a budget of DM 300 million. The VDI-TZ becomes the project management agency.
VDI/VDE-IT
The China Liaison Office begins work at VDI/VDE-IT to promote German-Chinese cooperation in electronics and information technology.
VDI/VDE-IT
VDI/VDE-IT enters the international arena for the first time as part of the “Value Relay Centre,” a network of the European Commission. Numerous other projects follow, for example, VDI/VDE-IT provides consulting assistance in ten Central and Eastern European countries over the course of the next few years. With its new headquarters in Techno Terrain Teltow, VDI/VDE-IT seeks proximity to young, technology-oriented companies in the new federal states.
VDI/VDE-IT
On behalf of the BMBF, VDI/VDE-IT designs and organizes the traveling exhibition “Micro Worlds.” The exhibition is shown in many cities in Germany and the EU and gives visitors without a technical background an insight into the possibilities of microsystems technology.
VDI/VDE-IT
The successful work in Bavaria is bearing fruit: in order to be a direct local contact for the project management of the “Microsystems Technology Bavaria” and “Information and Communication Technology in Bavaria” programmes, VDI/VDE-IT opens an office in Munich. Another highlight is the BMBF exhibition “Micro Worlds – Future Worlds: The Invisible Revolution” in Freiburg, designed by VDI/VDE-IT. Here, the special features and potential of microsystems technology are showcased, inspiring schoolchildren, citizens, media representatives, and politicians alike. The exhibition will tour Germany over the next few years. To strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs, the BMWi establishes the German Material Efficiency Agency (DEMEA) and commissions VDI/VDE-IT with its management.
A milestone in the company's history: Just a few hundred meters from where it was founded, VDI/VDE-IT now supports innovation processes from the listed Hoechst House on Steinplatz. In July, the European technology platform EPoSS for smart systems integration is launched in Brussels, offering the community a cross-application information network focusing on smart systems and micro-nano integration and bringing together various stakeholders. Security research is fundamental to the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, as well as to national programmes. Because microsystems technology makes valuable contributions to solving related challenges, VDI/VDE-IT is organizing the international conference “Safety and Security Systems in Europe” in Potsdam.
In September, VDI/VDE-IT holds a symposium on behalf of the BMBF on the topic of “Perspective permeability – shaping credit transfer! Opportunities for vocational and higher education.” 180 experts from business, science, and politics exchange ideas on ways to counter the shortage of skilled workers and provide their employees with high-level further training. On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, VDI/VDE-IT is organizing the key technology policy event for the German EU Council Presidency, the conference “RFID: Towards the Internet of Things.” More than 400 participants from all over Europe will develop a political roadmap and outline the next steps on the way to the “Internet of Things.” With the founding of the Institute for Innovation + Technology (iit) within VDI/VDE-IT, our scientific work takes on a life of its own. Since then, the institute has been conducting analyses, studies, and evaluations and developing its own instruments and tools to gain fundamental insights into innovation processes.
The National Strategy Conference on Electromobility, organized by VDI/VDE-IT on behalf of the Federal Ministries of Research, Economics, Environment, and Transport in Berlin, meets with a great response from industry, science, politics, and the media. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology commissions VDI/VDE-IT to manage the network module in the new Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM). At the beginning of 2008, VDI/VDE-IT opens an office in Dresden to coordinate the Saxony Renewable Energy Alliance (EESA) on behalf of the Saxony State Ministry of Economics, Labor, and Transport.
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VDI/VDE-IT is involved in the development of the National Development Plan for Electromobility on behalf of several federal ministries, is also the project management agency of the Federal Ministry for the Environment in this area, and is active in European projects such as the Green Cars Initiative. In the summer, employees take part in fleet trials with two MINI E cars.
VDI/VDE-IT
The Cluster Agency Baden-Württemberg begins its work and VDI/VDE-IT opens a project office in Stuttgart. Initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor, and Housing, the Cluster Agency is operated in close cooperation with VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Steinbeis-Beratungszentren GmbH, and Baden-Württemberg International GmbH. It is a service provider for cluster initiatives, state-wide networks, and cluster policy in Baden-Württemberg. VDI/VDE-IT's high-quality standards are confirmed in 2014 with the certification audit for the Information Security Management System (ISMS) according to ISO 27001.
The company now employs more than 300 people. A new addition is the project management for “Digital Change in Education, Science, and Research,” where VDI/VDE-IT supports the BMBF in implementing important parts of the German government's Digital Agenda. Education and training are also crucial foundations for the success of electromobility. How should education and training be designed to achieve this? This question is the focus of the National Education Conference on Electric Mobility, which is being organized by VDI/VDE-IT on behalf of the BMBF.
VDI/VDE-IT
VDI/VDE-IT turns 40. To mark this anniversary, we get a new mascot: Elinor the Owl. She has been traveling around the world with all our employees ever since. The company has now grown to over 500 employees, and new premises have been added in Berlin at Steinplatz 2 and Ernst-Reuter-Platz. In the area of Europe-wide funding, we were able to win the bid for the project management for the first ever “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI): under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Economics, the IPCEI Microelectronics enables numerous investment projects in the semiconductor industry to be funded.
In this year’s summer, the PT Lab, the project managemen agency’s laboratory, is launched: here, we research and develop innovative solutions for the project business. This also convinces our customers, enabling us to renew the three major project management contracts for human-technology interaction, information and communication technologies, and electronics research with the BMBF. A new addition is the supervision of the BMWi's “Innovation Programme for Business Models and Pioneering Achievements,” in which we are intensively involved with social innovations. Since this year, we have been working on the topic of battery cell production as part of the IPCEI battery cell production project management for the BMWi, and we are managing the 5G innovation programme for the BMVI.
Annette Koroll
Within the “Artificial Intelligence” initiative, we support the BMFTR in the further development and implementation of Germany’s AI strategy and corresponding measures and funding. The German High-Tech Agenda is launched and VDI/VDE-IT provides both technical expertise and communication support for its implementation Building on our long-standing European and international activities, VDI/VDE-IT organises a working meeting of the G7 countries in Dresden and Berlin on the future of semiconductor technologies. The event is held as part of our project management responsibilities for microelectronics and communication technologies on behalf of the BMWE. At the end of 2025, we bid farewell to our long-standing managing director, Dr Werner Wilke. He is succeeded by Christine Weiß, who will take over the management together with Peter Dortans from 2026.
Christian Wyrwa
Organisation
The managing directors and the team of VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH combine many years of experience, professional excellence and responsible conduct. Together, they drive innovation.
