At the 30th of October 2013 the RIGeL excursion team organized a trip to the Innovation and start-up center for Biotechnology (IZB) Martinsried, Bavaria’s largest cluster of Biotech companies and one of the top ten Biotech centers in the world (http://www.izb-online.de/english/home.php). 50 PhD students joined and enjoyed the warm welcome at the IZB. After a general introduction given by the managing director Dr. Peter Hanns Zobel seven of the 63 companies located at the IZB gave insight into their history and current business. These companies included the Origenis GmbH, Omegametrix GmbH, DPC Pharma Consulting, SIRION Biotech GmbH, Coriolis Pharma, Dust Biosolutions, and Evotec Munich.

After a lunch break kindly provided by the IZB the RIGeL PhD students had the possibility to visit the laboratories of some of the companies. This visitation and the possibilities for discussion with the representatives of the companies were very useful and highly interesting. On behalf of all RIGeL students participating at this excursion the organizing team would like to thank the responsibles of the IZB as well as the companies. Our particular thanks go to Susanne Simon of the IZB as well as to Susanne Oswald and Kinga Ay who helped us organizing the Bus transfer from Regensburg to Martinsried.