UnternehmerTUM is a mobility hub. This was announced this week by Federal Minister of Economics Sigmar Gabriel at the National IT Summit in Saarbrücken. The UnternehmerTUM is one of the first five hubs to participate in the Digital Hub Initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is supporting the hub with around 500,000 euros.
A total of up to twelve hubs will be created nationwide around Germany's leading industries, which are intended to develop national and international appeal and drive digital transformation in Germany. Above all, the Digital Hub Initiative is intended to provide a strong, targeted boost to cooperation between startups and established companies.
"I am convinced that cooperation will become increasingly important in the future – and that established companies must engage in close dialogue with startups. Both sides benefit from this: Established companies benefit from the creativity, high speed, and flexibility of startups. And startups, in turn, benefit from the processes and scalability of large companies."
said Susanne Klatten, entrepreneur and chairwoman of the supervisory board of UnternehmerTUM on the sidelines of the IT summit.
“The Digital Hub Initiative will systematically expand the targeted networking between traditional industry, IT, software and internet companies, startups and science and initiate new joint projects,”
says Klatten.
“The Mobility Hub finds the best structures in Bavaria”
Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs and Digitalization Ilse Aigner congratulates the UnternehmerTUM on the successful application.
"The Mobility Hub finds excellent structures in Bavaria. With the Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern, the Free State already has an excellent infrastructure in the field of digitalization. The "Connected Mobility" platform, in particular, offers numerous direct points of contact. This award will give additional impetus to the digital transformation in the Free State."
The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is funding the hub with approximately €500,000. UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Munich, is already a leading global platform where innovators from startups, companies, and universities collaborate to develop new, scalable digital products, services, and business models.
Germany the innovation location for mobility solutions
With the initiative of the German federal government and the support of the German digital association Bitkom, UnternehmerTUM, as a mobility hub, is expanding the portfolio of digital innovation and startup projects with a focus on mobility. The goal is to sustainably strengthen Germany's outstanding position as an innovation hub for mobility solutions.
The Digital Hub Mobility can also rely on strong partners at the state level: As an initiative of the Bavarian state government, the Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern offers a statewide platform for research, cooperation, innovation and start-up activities.
Close cooperation in all areas of activity of the Digital Hub Mobility will take place, particularly with the thematic platform “Connected Mobility.” The Mobility Hub receives comprehensive support from the Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt as well as from the mobility and digital sectors: The founding partners of the Mobility Hub are Audi, BMW, Daimler and IBM.
Three fields of action to strengthen the hub network
In addition to the existing activities in cooperation with startups and established companies, UnternehmerTUM, in cooperation with Bitkom and Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern, plans three fields of action to strengthen the hub network:
- UnternehmerTUM, in partnership with IBM, offers a digital training program for innovators and startups: the Digital Product School. More than 100 digital product managers, software developers, UX designers, and artificial intelligence specialists work together here each year. In concrete, practical projects, the latest agile development methods are applied and digital products are implemented to solve customer problems. This training program takes place at IBM's global Watson IoT Center in Munich.
- The Digital Hub initiates and supports new experimental and testing platforms in the areas of mobility and smart cities. The networking and bundling of initiatives and projects at the city, state, federal, and EU levels focuses on big data, eMobility, mobility services, and autonomous driving.
- With innovation and start-up events such as startup pitches, demo days and make tanks, the networking between the mobility industry and IT, software and web companies is systematically expanded and new joint projects are initiated.
