Construction of "Digital Innovation Campus" planned in Lippstadt

Lippstadt, October 17, 2017. The international automotive supplier HELLA is planning the construction of a "Digital Innovation Campus" in collaboration with Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences and other partners. The new research and development center in immediate proximity to Hamm-Lippstadt University is scheduled for completion in the year 2020. This should further boost the technological cooperation between highly effective research institutions and companies. The focus here consists above all on digitalization, especially in the areas of automotive lighting technology and electronics as well as the establishment of new innovation formats and methods.

 

"Hardly any other market trend is changing the automotive world as rapidly as digitalization. We therefore concern ourselves intensely with the question of how to further optimize our existing service offers and processes by using digital technologies and what new business models we can tap into thanks to the advancing digitalization", says HELLA CEO Dr. Rolf Breidenbach. "The Digital Innovation Campus in immediate proximity to our company headquarters will further support us in these aspects thanks to its close link to universities."

 

The new campus will be constructed in cooperation with the city of Lippstadt, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, as well as the Lippstadt-headquartered joint venture companies HBPO and BHTC. The research and innovation center will cover a total surface of more than 6,000 square meters. GWL Gemeinnützige Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Lippstadt GmbH will assume construction of the building as owner of the plot.

 

The Research Institute for Automotive Lighting Technology (L-LAB) founded by HELLA and Paderborn University in 2001 and joined by Hamm-Lippstadt University in 2015 will be one aspect of the Digital Innovation Center. HELLA furthermore intends to settle there the Research Institute for Automotive Electronics (E-LAB), which will be established in cooperation with Hamm-Lippstadt University and the Technical University of Dortmund in 2018.

 

In the wake of the Digital Innovation Center's opening, HELLA also plans the formation of a regional innovation lab (I-LAB) together with partner companies HBPO and BHTC. The I-LAB is intended as incubator and start-up center. HELLA already disposes of similar ventures in Berlin, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. The I-LAB should in part promote the innovation and start-up culture at the Lippstadt location in collaboration with the city of Lippstadt and Hamm-Lippstadt University.

 

With a start-up and innovation lab, Hamm-Lippstadt University also contributes its part to strengthening the innovation and start-up culture. Open lounges, workplaces and workshops will allow young people to develop innovative ideas across some 1,500 square meters. These will then be tested and awarded with regard to their degree of innovation and viability at the occasion of an internationally open ideas casting. Mentors consisting of a high-profile advisory board will provide support throughout. Presentations, workshops, hackathons and challenges will complement the overall program.

 

"As a young, dynamically growing university, we are committed among other things to promote entrepreneurial thinking across all age groups in the region while ensuring a close technology cooperation with local companies", says Karl-Heinz Sandknop, Chancellor of Hamm-Lippstadt University for Applied Sciences. "We are therefore glad that this ambition now also manifests itself concretely in the form of a Digital Innovation Center in direct proximity to our university campus."

 

"For Lippstadt, the new research and innovation center comes exactly at the right time", adds Lippstadt mayor Christof Sommer. "The new Digital Innovation Campus is not only a strong signal for the economic and technological location Lippstadt, but in particular also an excellent example for a good cooperation between industry, science and politics here in the region."

 

Company HBPO with its own research and development center as well as the planned "Digitale Zentrum Mittelstand" (Digital Center for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses) of Wirtschaftsförderung (Business Development) Lippstadt and Wirtschaftsförderung (Business Development) of the Soest district will be additional tenants of the research and development center.