Business Development Agency Munster
Key Competitive Attractions
Munster - the benefits of a capital without its disadvantages
Modern Munster is best characterised by a strong focus on education, culture and quality of life.
Munster, located on the Munstersche Aa river in the north-western part of North Rhine-Westphalia, has a strong historical background as a catholic diocesan town; the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated here. It is a family-friendly city, with numerous museums and sculptures in the city centre.
Munster is the third largest university city in Germany with approximately 46,000 students in eight universities, making it a young, vibrant and international town, known for its cultural, music and pub culture. Munster's set of universities includes art and music academies. The universities and their students are not only a key element of social and cultural life in Munster, they also play an important role as work places and thriving elements of the city's economy.
A vibrant mix of culture, tradition and science, Munster is a city focusing on future development and new innovations, combined with a high quality of life. In 2004, Munster was the first German city to win the international LivCom Award as the most liveable community in its category.
Assistance and Support For New Business Investors
WFM Business Development Munster
The key business areas of Munster Business Development (Wirtschaftsforderung Munster GmbH) are the development and marketing of industrial real estate, permission management, real estate service, advice on company foundation and funding, as well as business location marketing.
Additionally, we have further developed our advice section as well as customer access to financing opportunities, personnel requirements and co-operations. A strong partner in Munster's business network, we are well-connected to all significant institutions and key players, and know the right people to contact. We market Munster to investors and have been able to tie new and existing companies to Munster as a business location.
At WFM we are investing in Munster ourselves: The CeNTech GmbH (Centre for Nanotechnology) is expanding, adding laboratory spaces for 50 additional staff members. The Nano-Bioanalytik-Zentrum GmbH (Nano-Bioanalytics Centre) is erecting a fully equipped laboratory building with a size of 4,500 square metres, worth over €16 million. WFM is currently developing the 54 ha Hansa-BusinessPark in the south of Munster. The Hansa-Business Park, located in Amelsburen, is already an important addition to Munster due to its excellent connection to the A1 motorway, its cost efficiency, and its direct connection to the Dortmund-Ems-Canal and its wharves.
We are looking forward to welcome you in Munster.
Existing Business Base
Munster's five key business sectors
Munster is amongst Europe's top locations for nanotechnology, particularly in medical research, medical technology and pharmaceuticals. One of the three European centres for excellence in the nanotechnology sector is situated in Munster.
Health care is another key sector in Munster, due to its university hospital, the Universitatsklinikum Munster (UKM), with a focus on medical prevention. UKM and several innovative health businesses, such as Olympius, Carpegen or Signalomics, have helped sector growth in recent years, employing 17,500 staff in the hospital and health related companies.
Outsourcing, particularly in the IT sector, is a growing area of competence in Munster. Small and medium-sized IT and consulting businesses are forming the core of Munster's professional services. Munster ranks 2nd in North Rhine-Westphalia and 6th in Germany overall for databases and data processing.
The geological information research cluster is training students at Munster's universities in the areas of data collection, data tools and data evaluation. The geo-information network Munsterland is complementing businesses such as Hansa Luftbild, EFTAS, GIS Consult and TerraVista.
Two out of Germany's three largest companies in the lacquer and paint sector are based in Munster, Brillux and BASF Coatings. The business cluster for lacquer, coatings, paint and surface analytics "Oberflache. NRW" is the second largest within Germany for this sector.
