Digital Hub

A space for digital innovations made in Kurpfalz

The Digital Hub in Heidelberg Innovation Park will create a digitalization nexus for the part of the Kurpfalz (Electoral Palatinate) region in the State of Baden-Württemberg. It will provide a meeting place – both real and virtual – for start-up founders and investors, entrepreneurs and scientists, local people and politicians, all helping to shape our digital transformation.

Digital Hub kurpfalz@bw was set up by 13 partners from the Kurpfalz region, including the City of Heidelberg and Digital-Agentur Heidelberg GmbH, with the aim of creating space for digital innovation. And the term “space” is meant in its most literal sense: The hub will be located in Heidelberg Innovation Park (HIP) on the redeveloped Patton Barracks site in the Kirchheim district. From early 2019, the refurbished premises will accommodate workshops, advisory meetings and events. Also planned are open creative workshops, makerspaces and co-working areas. In addition, events will be organized at satellite locations across the entire Kurpfalz region.

The Hub offers start-up founders the opportunity to form networks and take business ideas to the next level. For investors, the Hub is a place to discover new business ideas and talent. Companies here can pool their work on innovative products and business models.

As well as providing a physical meeting place, there will also be a virtual collaboration platform to facilitate exchange – for example via a sharepoint or video telephony.

In this way, as a catalyst for regional business development, the Hub will serve both as incubator and workbench in one. A place where the region’s digital future is actively shaped and new forms of cooperation can be practiced – both virtually and for real. As a driver of digitalization, the Hub assumes the role of mediator and facilitates alliances between all fields involved in the digital transformation: business, science, politics and society.
Operational management of the Digital Hub is in the hands of Digital-Agentur GmbH Heidelberg. The state of Baden-Württemberg will provide EUR 1 million to fund Heidelberg’s digitalization center. This state funding spans three years, after which the Hub will switch to independent operation.