Good growth prospects are seen for knowledge-intensive services because future demand will continue to remain strong for services in areas such as healthcare, information, business and financial consulting. Studies by noted specialists NIW (Lower Saxony Economic Research Institute), ISI (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research) and ZEW (Centre for European Economic Research) show that knowledge-intensive services are strongly represented in Bonn and accounted for 37.3% of all employment in the city in mid-2017. This gives Bonn a significantly sharper knowledge profile than NRW as a whole, for example, where only 22.1% of jobs are in the knowledge-based service segment. The three strongest sectors – healthcare, corporate management/headquarters and information technology – together account for nearly a quarter (around 23.0%) of all employment in Bonn.

The Bonn region is a major location for research and innovation. Its outstanding features include an attractive higher education landscape, numerous international research institutions, prominent actors in the field of academic policy and administration and major corporate research departments.

Established in 1995, the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences has around 9,000 students and approximately 1,000 teaching, research and administrative staff. It currently offers 31 study programmes – half bachelor, half master programmes – at three locations: Sankt Augustin, Rheinbach and Hennef. Nearly 60% of the around 1,100 graduates it produces each year remain in the area, guaranteeing that the university plays a major role in the cooperation between business and science.

Bonn is a strong healthcare location enjoying a good reputation at both national and international level. Hallmarks of the Bonn healthcare cluster include an outstanding system of medical services, a large number of healthcare-oriented research and scientific institutions and the presence of major healthcare agencies, trusts and associations. The city is also the home of numerous noted enterprises in the fields of telemedicine, imaging systems, consulting and occupational health and safety.

The city's status in the healthcare landscape is officially recognised by the State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia, which has identified a total of six regions as healthcare hubs within NRW. The Cologne/Bonn region is one of them.

Information and communication technologies play a key role in the structural and technological evolution of Bonn. The sector is defined in the city by major players and employers such as Deutsche Telekom but also by a dynamic tier of SMEs.

Against the backdrop of Bonn's prominent profile as an IT city, Senior Mayor Ashok Sridharan initiated the "Digital Bonn“ project in cooperation with Bonn IT and management consultant axxessio GmbH, the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Office of Economic Development of the City of Bonn. The position of project manager was assumed by axxessio managing director Goodarz Mahbobi. In an intensive work process, IT actors developed 340 project proposals aimed at strengthening Bonn's digital transformation. They were presented as a "Catalogue of Ideas" on 2 December 2016.

Since then, numerous projects have been implemented. One is the Digital Hub Region Bonn, which receives € 1.5 million funding from the NRW state government. In spring 2017, a start-up centre was established at premises in the new Bonner Bogen district to help potential entrepreneurs create startups and offer newly created startups an established infrastructure. Apart from offering coworking spaces, the Hub attaches particular importance to promoting networking with Bonn-based companies as well as scientific, research and academic institutions such as the University of Bonn and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.

 www.digitalhub.de (opens in a new tab)

The Bonn region is regarded throughout Germany as a major centre for geobusiness. No other region has access to as much geoinformation expertise. The Geoinformation Initiative established in 2004 is a regional network of actors from academia, science, research, business and administration. The initiative's mission is to further sharpen the profile of the geoindustry, initiate networks and drive innovation in the Bonn region and beyond. The network is sponsored by the Office for Economic Development of the City of Bonn and the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The most important institutions include:

• six universities
• six Fraunhofer institutes
• three Max Planck institutes
• Caesar Research Centre, associated with the Max Planck Society
• German Aerospace Centre (DLR)
• German Centre for Neurodegenerate Diseases (DZNE)
• German Research Foundation (DFG),
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD),
• German Rectors' Conference (HRK),
• Wissenschaftszentrum (Science Centre),
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
• Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation),
• Telekom Foundation
• Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation
• Deutsches Museum Bonn
• Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

More institutions and information can be found at:  www.wissenschaftsregion-bonn.de (opens in a new tab)