News › Gold for Opto­Net e.V. · Euro­pean award goes to Thu­rin­gia for the first time

Great joy at the Opto­Net e.V. clus­ter of com­pa­nies in Jena. The clus­ter orga­niza­tion with 115 mem­bers from the pho­to­nics indus­try and rese­arch has recei­ved the Gold Label of the Euro­pean Clus­ter Excel­lence Initia­tive (ECEI).

Jena, March 2023 – Opto­Net recei­ves this award after a suc­cessful qua­lity audit of the net­work manage­ment along a com­pre­hen­sive set of cri­te­ria. The asso­cia­tion is thus the first and only Thu­rin­gian clus­ter, the second East Ger­man net­work and one of a total of 13 Ger­man clus­ters to be allo­wed to use this qua­lity label.

»We are very plea­sed and proud of this award, which con­firms the excel­lent work of the office in recent years,« said Dr. Tors­ten Poß­ner, who sup­ported par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the test­ing pro­cess from the begin­ning as chair­man of the board. »Opto­Net is thus one of the best and most effi­ci­ent clus­ters in Europe.«

The ECEI GOLD label »Clus­ter Manage­ment Excel­lence« is an inde­pen­dent veri­fi­ca­tion and is awarded to orga­niza­ti­ons that demons­trate pro­fes­sio­nal high-qua­lity clus­ter manage­ment. The eva­lua­tion pro­cess ana­ly­zed com­pe­ten­cies and per­for­mance in the areas of struc­ture, gover­nance, fun­ding, stra­tegy and ser­vices. Invol­vement of mem­bers in stra­tegy for­ma­tion and regu­lar pol­ling of mem­ber inte­rests and needs also played a spe­cial role.

»For our team, the award is both praise and incen­tive,« says Anke Sieg­meier, mana­ging direc­tor of Opto­Net e.V., who pre­pared and accom­pa­nied the label pro­cess and audit for over a year. »The Gold Label stands not only for an excel­lent team per­for­mance in the office, but also for active and com­mit­ted mem­bers. We are on the right track and want to con­ti­nue to improve and expand our offe­rings and services.«

About Opto­Net e.V.

Opto­Net e.V. was foun­ded in 1999 as a clus­ter orga­niza­tion and curr­ently repres­ents the inte­rests of 115 play­ers in the Thu­rin­gian pho­to­nics indus­try. The office is loca­ted in Jena and is mana­ged by Anke Sieg­meier and Nora Kirs­ten. The five-mem­ber team is com­mit­ted to tech­no­lo­gi­cal com­pe­tence, pro­mo­ting young talent and secu­ring skil­led workers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and streng­thening the dyna­mics of start-ups.

Opto­Net has alre­ady par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the label pro­cess for the third time and was awarded the sil­ver label in 2016 and 2019. The signi­fi­cantly more deman­ding pro­cess for the Gold label was laun­ched in 2022 and suc­cessfully com­ple­ted in early 2023 during a two-day audit with two inde­pen­dent clus­ter experts.

The Euro­pean Secre­ta­riat for Clus­ter Ana­ly­sis (ESCA).

The Euro­pean Secre­ta­riat for Clus­ter Ana­ly­sis (ESCA) is the focal point for pro­mo­ting clus­ter manage­ment excel­lence through bench­mar­king and qua­lity labe­l­ing of clus­ter manage­ment orga­niza­ti­ons world­wide. The Ber­lin-based orga­niza­tion coor­di­na­tes a net­work of some 200 clus­ter experts from more than 30 count­ries who pro­vide bench­mar­king and labe­l­ing ser­vices on behalf of ESCA. In addi­tion, ESCA advi­ses clus­ter mana­gers on clus­ter deve­lo­p­ment and sup­ports clus­ter poli­cy­ma­kers and pro­gram mana­gers with advice on clus­ter pro­gram deve­lo­p­ment. The Euro­pean Secre­ta­riat for Clus­ter Ana­ly­sis awards three dif­fe­rent qua­lity labels to qua­li­fied clus­ter manage­ment organizations.

Fur­ther links

The Euro­pean Secre­ta­riat for Clus­ter Ana­ly­sis (ESCA)

List of cer­ti­fied clusters