Gatersleben

Agriculture and Biotechnology are the two major focus areas to promote economic development in and around the village. The Biotechpark Gatersleben, developed at the initiative of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, provides space for growing biotech companies. The Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research IPK (https://www.ipk-gatersleben.de]), Gatersleben, is a nonprofit research institution for crop genetics and molecular biology and is part of the Leibniz Association.

At present, Gatersleben is rapidly becoming a center for “green” biotechnology. The establishment of SunGene, a plant biotechnology company and subsidiary of the BASF group, provided the principal impetus in 1998. Today, SunGene is a part of the BASF Plant Science organisation and has more than 60 employees and an ideal research environment in a modern laboratory building. Three other biotech firms, hived off from the IPK, work in a business centre completed in autumn 2000: TraitGenetics, Novoplant, and ArrayOn. Plantalytics GmbH, a small service company for photosynthetic metering, also operates on the campus.

Due to major structural problems in Saxony-Anhalt, such as a high rate of unemployment, Gatersleben, with its biotech-park, is of great importance to developing that area.

Gatersleben combines rural village life in the plains of the Harz with an international community, creating a culture known as G-Life. The internationally known Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, IPK (https://www.ipk-gatersleben.de), together with the associated biotechnology companies, attract a diverse community from around Germany, Europe, and the world.