"The research scene of Bavaria is more and more characterized by establishing Research Units. Biological Safety, Artificial Intelligence, and Climate Research, to name a few, are examples of how Bavaria tries to concentrate the competence of its universities in order to bring new technologies as quickly as possible into use."
This remark is found in June 1993 in the periodical Netzwerk. It reports under the headline "Bayerische Forschungsverbünde formieren sich" on the establishment of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Bayerischen Forschungsverbünde" (A*Bay*FOR):
"May 7, 1993, the Bavarian Research Units under the patronage of the Ministry of Science formed a syndicate for coordination of work on fields as different as waste products research and optical communication engineering. Forming a network should help to counterbalance the increasing split among scientific disciplines by information exchange, cooperation, and shared aims among the Research Units."

In order to strengthen the dialog with universities, the economy, and the public, the syndicate arranged on October 18, 1993 in cooperation with the "Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht, Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst" its first symposium "Forschungsverbünde - Eine Grundlage Bayerischer Technologiekompetenz". More than 600 persons from business, science, and politics were informed on the aims and activities of the Research Units. Prof.Dr. Bernd Radig, Ordinarius for Informatics at the TU München and speaker of A*Bay*FOR,presented the syndicate, and the speakers of the several Research Units gave insights into their work. Guest speakers were the president of the German Science Council, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neuweiler, the chairman of the Association of the Bavarian Metal Industry, Dipl.-Kfm. Hubert Stärker and the chairman of the scientific commission of the "Bayerische Forschungsstiftung", Dr.-Ing. E.h. J. Schäffler. Their papers discussed the role and organization of today's research in view of the Research Units as an up-to-date instrument of research promotion. The main lecture was given by Dr. Edmund Stoiber, Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria. He concentrated on the role of research for the security of the German economy. The Research Units, according to Stoiber, are the answer for the necessity to use the research budget more economically, to use synergy effects between different locations, research institutions and the economy

Dr. Edmund Stoiber, Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria, at the opening of the A*Bay*FOR symposium

and to arrive at a tighter coupling between research and application.

Werner.Meixner@informatik.tu-muenchen.de