In the technology park near the university, a unique innovation ecosystem has been created after a construction period of only one and a half years, which is designed for the use of digital technologies and, above all, for transfer and collaboration. The hub, funded by the state of Bremen, is primarily intended to enable small and medium-sized industrial companies to undergo the urgently needed digital transformation and serve as a testing ground for innovations and new business models.

Small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMEs) in particular are facing major challenges in the face of an increasingly volatile environment. They have to successfully manage their day-to-day business while at the same time developing innovations that will secure business success in the future. Digitalization offers enormous potential for this. The question, however, is how companies are to implement the digital transformation quickly and in a value-creating manner on their own, without sufficient (digital) expertise and with very limited resources. The answer is: not ALONE at all. "In our technologically and organizationally complex world, we can only be successful in the future through collaboration. For us in Germany and Europe in particular, success is increasingly a question of intelligent collaboration," says Lenze CEO Christian Wendler, summarizing the motivation behind the project. He continues in his opening speech: "Our mission at Lenze is to competently accompany SMEs, in particular our medium-sized customers, in their digital transformation and to offer them an ecosystem for this valuable exchange. The Digital Hub Industry offers excellent conditions and an extraordinarily creative environment for this."

The basic idea of the DHI is to create a place for exchange between companies and research fields of the university and colleges. On the one hand, companies like Lenze provide their industrial know-how and contribute their digital challenges and current problems as concrete objects of investigation for research projects. On the other hand, the companies benefit from the research results and can transform them into new digital products, services, or business models.

In her welcoming address, Kristina Vogt, Senator for Economic Affairs, Labor, and Europe, emphasized the importance of the Digital Hub Industry for the state of Bremen: "Medium-sized companies and startups, in particular, are supported and strengthened on their path to digitization through needs-oriented and practical offerings. The Digital Hub Industry thus sustainably increases the attractiveness of our location, it creates new jobs and secures existing ones."

The heart of the hub in the new Neos building with its approx. 16,000 m² of office, laboratory, and event space is an Open Innovation Lab with coworking and maker spaces, diverse laboratory areas, and a large event space. Here, established industrial companies can cooperate specifically with each other, with university scientists or start-ups and "digital" talents. In times of a shortage of skilled workers, the Digital Hub Industry offers another advantage because its proximity to the University of Bremen creates easy access to skilled workers, talents, and innovators.