Digital Hub Logistics takes 1st place in Champions Challenge of Digital Hubs in Europe

In the EU Champions Challenge, the hub took the lead in both categories announced – “SME Orientation” and “Service Portfolio”. The competition is an initiative of DIHNET.EU, the coordinating body of more than 500 EU recognized Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in Europe. Today, the prize was awarded at the DIHNET.EU Stakeholder Forum in Madrid. The finalists included the Dortmund Digital Hub Logistics, the Spanish Data Cycle Hub and IAM 3D HUB, the SuperIoT AI DIH from Finland and the Transilvania Digital Innovation Hub from Romania. As a pioneer of digital innovation, the Digital Hub Logistics - funded by DIHNET.EU - will now support young hubs in their development with best practice examples throughout Europe. This applies in particular to the definition and design of formats and services by means of which digitization of small and medium-sized enterprises in their respective countries or regions is to be promoted.

“This award is a great honor for us: it rewards the tireless commitment of science, business, politics and associations to develop Dortmund as a science location into an international center of digital transformation around the leading logistics industry.”

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel

Exciting environment for companies

The Dortmund Digital Innovation hub is one of the leading innovation ecosystems for logistics worldwide. It pushes forward digitization in logistics, production and manufacturing, in trade or services. The foundation for the hub was laid by three competence centers:  the Fraunhofer Institutes for Material Flow and Logistics IML and for Software and Systems Engineering ISST and TU Dortmund University. EffizienzCluster Management GmbH (ECM) officially runs the hub. ECM was founded as coordinating body of EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, a leading edge cluster of the Federal Government. Today, it manages the Digital Hub Logistics which, with its unique ecosystem, is led by the EU as a Digital Innovation Hub. “About ten years ago, the EffizienzCluster laid the foundation for the networking of scientific institutions - each a big player in logistics research - and companies in the region,” says ECM Managing Director Thorsten Hülsmann. “Today, as the world's leading digital logistics hub, we offer an exciting environment for all companies involved in applied research and technology development that want to bring new digital products and processes to market.”

Under its virtual roof, the Dortmund Digital Innovation Hub bundles initiatives in the areas of basic and applied research such as the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr and the Leistungszentrum Logistik und IT (National Centre of Excellence for Logistics and IT), lighthouse projects such as the Innovationlab Hybrid Services in Logistics or the International Data Spaces Association as well as state-of-the-art test halls, research and application centers. Moreover, the hub supports small and medium-sized enterprises in their digital transformation with tailor-made offers. This includes free consulting and support services, for example by “Digital in NRW - Kompetenz im Mittelstand” (SME Enabling Center„Digital in NRW), as well as memberships, which especially support so-called start-ins - independent digital units of classic companies – to get access to co-working spaces, networks and innovation modules from a “Start-in-Factory”. Numerous large companies and groups, e.g. Telekom, Commerzbank or Würth, already use the opportunity to develop new products or new business models at top speed together with research in their own Enterprise Labs. Last, but not least, projects to promote young scientists are integrated into the hub - such as the Graduate School of Logistics, the only industry-funded doctoral program in Germany.