ZEISS opens first Innovation Hub outside Germany at IIT Madras Research Park

German optics and technology major ZEISS on Thursday launched its first innovation hub outside Germany at the IIT Madras Research Park, marking a move to deepen its engagement with India’s research and startup environment.

The Chennai centre will initially have a team of four to five people and focus on early-stage research in areas such as advanced frugal engineering, harsh-environment optics, robotics and fluid dynamics. The technologies developed through the hub could eventually be taken forward as products or solutions, although the company said it was too early to identify specific commercial applications.

ZEISS President and CEO Andreas Pecher said the centre would adopt a different approach from the company’s established operations in Bengaluru, which include medical technology, software and hardware development, as well as manufacturing activities across several ZEISS businesses.

“We want to think about topics that are relevant in 10 years,” Pecher said, outlining the long-term research focus of the Chennai hub.

Unlike a conventional R&D centre driven by a predefined list of priorities from Germany, the new facility will work closely with the IIT Madras facilities to identify technologies that could become relevant to ZEISS’s businesses over the longer term.

The hub will collaborate with IIT Madras departments, including engineering design and computer vision, along with the institute’s incubation cell, startups and its health-tech incubation ecosystem.

Pecher said the research would focus on both technologies relevant to India and innovations that could eventually be developed in India for global markets. The size of the team is expected to increase as projects and research areas take shape.

ZEISS invests around 15% of its revenue in research and development annually, according to Pecher. The company operates across four major business areas: medical technology, consumer markets, industrial quality and research, and semiconductor manufacturing technology.

The company has not disclosed the investment planned for the Chennai hub. Pecher said both investment and headcount would be scaled up based on the projects undertaken by the centre.

The launch comes as India is seeking to build out its semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. ZEISS supplies equipment used by semiconductor manufacturers, but Pecher said the company currently has no plans to expand its semiconductor equipment R&D operations in India.

Most of ZEISS’s semiconductor equipment R&D and production remains based in Germany, with additional activities in Switzerland and Israel.

The company also declined to provide a fresh fixed target for expanding its India workforce to 5,000, following an earlier announcement on the proposed expansion.

Miguel Gonzalez Diaz, Managing Director of ZEISS India, said there was “not a set number” for future hiring. Expansion, he said, would depend on the requirements of the company’s businesses, including manufacturing.