“VOCO is a wonderful example of how research cooperations can be put into practice excellently,” said Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, praising the family-managed company VOCO during her visit to its headquarters in Cuxhaven. Together with the new Member of the State Parliament for the CDU Thiemo Röhler and the Parliamentary Secretary of State Enak Ferlemann, she was very keen to get her teeth into a discussion with the dental manufacturer regarding research funding. In her opinion, it is essential to support and promote research and innovation throughout Germany, especially among SMEs.
VOCO proved without doubt that this type of support is worth the investment and funding can also be employed with great success in SMEs. “All of our projects have been successful,” emphasised Dr. Christian Plath, Head of Corporate Communications. He presented the company to the guests together with Manfred Thomas Plaumann, a Member of the Management Board and the man responsible for the field of Research and Development. A subsequent tour of the premises with a focus on digital dentistry also gave the politicians a chance to get an impression for themselves of the industrial company, which is one of the few to house all of its departments from development right up to production at the same site.
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Maletz, Head of the Research and Development department answered questions on all aspects of his duties and reiterated yet again how important cooperations with industrial SMEs for fundamental research are – for example with the Fraunhofer Institute – as the focus is always on the products. And that’s particularly true at VOCO.