Centrally located between the smart metropolises of Hamburg and Copenhagen, an even stronger innovation engine for the Hansebelt region is to be created on the campus in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. The Technical University (TH) Lübeck and the University of Lübeck (UzL) now started with the start of project funding on January 1st, 2023. In the last year, the universities received an award in the program of the federal and state initiative “Innovative University” in Lübeck Hanse Innovation Campus (HIC) fetched. The Hanse Innovation Campus Lübeck is an association of science, research and technology transfer institutions on the Lübeck campus – mainly supported by the TH Lübeck and the UzL. The universities will have around 15 million euros at their disposal over the next five years. Among other things, the money is to flow into four focus areas and further training for digitization.
“We make innovations out of knowledge,” says Frank Schwartze, Vice President for Research and International Affairs at Lübeck University of Applied Sciences. “The aim is to make the knowledge of the campus available for specific user applications in the regional economy and to further expand the dialogue. We will implement this task with passion!” Schwartze explains the intention of the project.
Stefan Fischer, Vice President of the University of Lübeck, is enthusiastic: “We are delighted that the years of excellent cooperation between TH Lübeck and the University of Lübeck have received this great nationwide recognition and that the consistent preparation of this application has now paid off. We are making the Hanse Innovation Campus one of the central transfer platforms in the Hansebelt and are continuing to encourage exchange between science and business.”
Anna Lena Paape, Managing Director of Hanse Innovation Campus GmbH, adds: “I am delighted that Lübeck’s universities have successfully applied for funding in the ‘Innovative University’ funding programme. Together with the universities and other partners at the Hanse Innovation Campus Lübeck, things can now get started. We are expanding the transfer and making the Hanse Innovation Campus Lübeck the innovation engine of the region.”
In their concept “Hansebelt Innovation Matrix Lübeck” – HI Lübeck for short – the universities concentrate on the challenges in the economy: be it in the digital transformation or in the reorganization towards a more sustainable economy and society in the Hansebelt region. The players on the campus carry expertise in the fields of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, health technologies, as well as business and the environment, out of the universities and into the Hansebelt region. In terms of content, the HIC focuses on four focus areas in its project: nutrition/bioeconomy, intelligent health, energy/smart city and the production of tomorrow.
The project partners
TH Lübeck, University of Lübeck, Hanse Innovation Campus, Technikzentrum Lübeck, University Hospital, IHK zu Lübeck, Hansebelt eV, Life Science Nord, M4KK, Drägerwerk AG & Co.KGaA, the regional industry network foodregio eV, Center for Industrial Biotechnology (CIB) of the TH Lübeck, Institute for Nutritional Medicine (INUM) of the UzL, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft eV, Fraunhofer IMTE, OnCampus GmbH, TraveKom Telecommunications GmbH (Trave-Kom), Mittelstand-Digital Zentrums Schleswig-Holstein (MDZ SH ), FabLab eV, KI-Transfer-Hub, Nordverbund Marine Biotechnologie eV, Artificial Intelligence in Applications (KIA), Center for Artificial Intelligence Lübeck (ZKIL), Institute for Multimedia and Interactive Systems (IMIS), Science Center for Intelligent Energy Use, Sustainable Planning , construction and operation, CoSA, Energiecluster Digitales Lübeck eV
About the Innovative University funding initiative
The “Innovative University” is a funding initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Joint Science Conference (GWK). In the second round of funding, the federal-state initiative selected a total of 55 universities for funding in 16 individual and 13 joint projects. These include 39 technical colleges or universities of applied science, 3 art and music colleges and 13 universities and colleges of education. The “Innovative University” contributes to the fact that research findings in all scientific disciplines are turned into even more efficient creative solutions for the urgent challenges of our time. A regional connection is particularly important here: Universities make an important contribution to innovations in their region. Please refer: https://www.innovative-hochschule.de/foerderinitiative/ueber-die-foerderinitiative