The innoFSPEC innovation center is a joint venture of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP) and the University of Potsdam (UP) carrying out synergistic R&D in the field of multichannel spectroscopy and fiber sensing. The center comprises two interlinked groups, the first group (located at AIP) specializes in optical fiber and integrated waveguide based photonic technologies targeting astronomical spectroscopic applications (Astrophotonics); a second group (located at UP) specializes in fiber based chemical sensing.