About us – EDIH Hamburg

Meet the EDIH partners

The Hamburg metropolitan region offers a rich economic history with many years of experience and internationally recognized recognized Expertise in logistics, technology and science. With our network of six local partners, we are able to meet all the needs of local SMEs, mid-sized companies and public administrations. Depending on their capabilities, all partners offer different formats from which you can choose according to your needs.

You can either contact the general EDIH team via the contact page or directly to the individual partners.

HITeC e.V. (Hamburg Innovation Technology Center) is a nonprofit association dedicated to promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology between academia, industry, and society, and has served as the research and technology transfer center for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hamburg for 25 years.

As the coordinating partner of EDIH Hamburg, HITeC supports small and medium-sized enterprises as well as public institutions in developing and implementing digital innovations. By connecting research institutions, companies, and public stakeholders, HITeC strengthens the innovative capacity, digital resilience, and competitiveness of the Hamburg metropolitan region.

Within the project, HITeC is responsible for overall coordination as well as for the following areas: AI prototyping, use case development, the computing cluster, project proposal writing, and skills and training programs in the fields of AI, HPC, and cybersecurity.

ARIC was founded in 2019 and has since been the go-to resource for AI in the Hamburg metropolitan region. As a nonprofit organization, it serves as the official AI center for the City of Hamburg and is establishing an application-oriented center of expertise by connecting stakeholders from business, academia, politics, and civil society.

ARIC leads and initiates a series of AI expert groups, organizes more than 150 events per year, and is involved in various projects—ranging from digitalization projects for SMEs to an accelerator program for AI startups and the development of a quantum technology ecosystem. They also conduct their own research on relevant topics such as Responsible AI. ARIC will continue to draw on the insights and contacts gained from the project even after its completion.

The “Business Innovation Lab” (BIL) Research and Transfer Center, an organizational unit of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), addresses the challenges of digitalization and Industry 4.0 in relation to business models, both in theory and in practice.

Over the course of five years, BIL has organized dozens of presentations, workshops, and demonstrations to showcase the potential of adaptive order management, AI, distributed ledger technologies, augmented and virtual reality, and the digital transformation of business models for SMEs. As a well-connected research institution, the project’s results and the contacts established will be leveraged for future projects.

The Institute of Logistics and Business Management (LogU) at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) conducts research at the interface of business and technology and conducts application-oriented research and teaching in the fields of logistics, supply chain (risk) management, sustainability, data analytics, AI, digitalization of SMEs and applied management methods. As a very active research unit at the TUHH, the project results are incorporated into further research and teaching.

The Digital Hub Logistics & Commerce Hamburg partner connects companies, investors, start-ups, research and education through the Digital Hub Initiative, an international network for the logistics of tomorrow. As part of this innovative network funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) with twelve competence centers in Germany, the project partner is closely involved in local and regional networks. The results of EDIH will be disseminated further via this network once the project has been completed.

IKS Hamburg (Innovation Contact Center): A joint initiative of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and Hamburg’s universities since 2011, it facilitates free-of-charge contacts between industry and academia for innovation projects in the Hamburg metropolitan region.

The Hamburg Chamber of Skilled Crafts represents 15,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and 120,000 employees in these companies. It plays an active role in national networks of chambers and associations of skilled crafts and SMEs. The Chamber of Skilled Crafts will be able to become active in the first two phases of exploitation following this project.