News › Opto­Net once again awarded the GOLD label for clus­ter excellence

Jena, April 2026 – The pho­to­nics clus­ter Opto­Net e.V. has suc­cessfully pas­sed the recer­ti­fi­ca­tion for the GOLD label of the Euro­pean Clus­ter Excel­lence Initia­tive (ECEI). This means that the net­work orga­niza­tion has once again recei­ved inde­pen­dent proof of clus­ter manage­ment at the hig­hest Euro­pean level.

Opto­Net is the­r­e­fore curr­ently the only pho­to­nics clus­ter in Ger­many with a GOLD label from the ECEI and at the same time the only clus­ter in Thu­rin­gia with this hig­hest Euro­pean award.

»The GOLD award con­firms the high qua­lity of our clus­ter manage­ment and the con­sis­tent fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of recent years,« says Dr. Jörg Wag­ner, CEO of Opto­Net e.V. »The fact that we were able to improve again in the cur­rent audit and once again achieve a very high rating under­lines our posi­tion as one of the stron­gest per­forming clus­ters in Europe. At the same time, this is a clear signal of the strength of our net­work and the attrac­ti­ve­ness of Thu­rin­gia as a pho­to­nics loca­tion.«

As part of the audit, which took place on Febru­ary 3, 2026 in Jena, Opto­Net achie­ved 90% of the pos­si­ble excel­lence points. Key cri­te­ria such as manage­ment, mem­ber­ship struc­ture, stra­tegy, finan­cing and ser­vices were eva­lua­ted.

Estab­lished struc­tures and con­ti­nuous fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment

The eva­lua­tion report cer­ti­fies that Opto­Net e.V. has a very well deve­lo­ped and pro­fes­sio­nally mana­ged clus­ter manage­ment. The high level of manage­ment matu­rity, per­son­nel con­ti­nuity and sus­tainable rela­ti­onships in all areas of the Ger­man and inter­na­tio­nal high-tech com­mu­nity are par­ti­cu­larly empha­si­zed.

The report also high­lights the posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment of the net­work at mem­ber level: In par­ti­cu­lar, the con­ti­nuous growth and high level of inte­gra­tion of the cur­rent 138 play­ers are seen as an important basis for the per­for­mance of the clus­ter.

Clear feed­back and impe­tus for fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment

»The recer­ti­fi­ca­tion gives us clear exter­nal feed­back on our work,« says Nora Kirs­ten, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Opto­Net e.V. »The Gold Label not only stands for excel­lent team per­for­mance in the office, but also for strong and com­mit­ted members.The infor­ma­tion from the report helps us to fur­ther shar­pen our stra­te­gic goals and to drive for­ward key topics such as inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and secu­ring skil­led workers in a tar­ge­ted man­ner.«

Proof of qua­lity for excel­lent clus­ter manage­ment

The ECEI GOLD label »Clus­ter Manage­ment Excel­lence« is a Europe-wide reco­gni­zed proof of qua­lity for pro­fes­sio­nal clus­ter manage­ment. As part of the stan­dar­di­zed eva­lua­tion pro­cess, 31 qua­lity indi­ca­tors are ana­ly­zed in the areas of struc­ture, gover­nance, finan­cing, stra­tegy and ser­vices. A pre­re­qui­site for the award is a degree of excel­lence of at least 80%. Opto­Net achie­ved 90% in the cur­rent pro­ce­dure.

Fur­ther links

The Euro­pean Secre­ta­riat for Clus­ter Ana­ly­sis (ESCA)

List of cer­ti­fied clusters