Cooperation opportunities

In this way, they contribute their expertise to the ongoing ecological, economic and social change process in the Ruhr metropolitan region and are available to interested parties as contact persons in the subject area.

Competence Centers

• SME Digital Center Rural Regions
  The Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum provides targeted support for small and medium-sized enterprises in rural regions in their digital transformation. In order to make SMEs in particular fit for the future and resilient, all offerings follow a human-centered, social partnership-based and sustainable approach. Two chairs of the Ruhr University Bochum Faculty of Mechanical Engineering are represented in the project: The Chair of Production Systems (LPS) and the Chair of Industrial Sales and Service Engineering (ISSE).

• Mittelstand Digital Center Construction
  The Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum supports medium-sized companies in the construction and real estate industry to initiate the strategic change towards increased digitalization, to increase networking with other companies, to gain further experience with digital technologies and solutions also in connection with sustainability, to optimize processes and thus to meet increased expectations for valid and process-compliant data provision. The Ruhr University Bochum is represented in the project by the Chair of Computer Science in Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

• Competence Center HUMAINE - Transfer Hub of the Ruhr Metropolis for Human-Centered Work with AI
  In HUMAINE, human-centered AI solutions in new work processes are developed and implemented through practical pilot applications, taking into account new interfaces. Through innovative methods for the development of AI work roles, business models and organizational development measures, an interlocking of technological with social approaches is thus made possible. The Institute of Industrial Engineering of the Faculty of Economics at Ruhr University Bochum is the consortium leader in the project.

• School Makes Strong
  A total of 200 primary and secondary schools across Germany are working together with educational scientists on research-based practical measures to systematically improve educational opportunities for children at schools in socially disadvantaged locations. The measures are subsequently made available to other schools in socially challenging situations. The Ruhr-Universität is involved in the project with the Chairs of School Research and School Pedagogy of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Research and the Center for Interdisciplinary Regional Research of the Faculty of Social Science.

Cooperation Platforms.NRW

• Materials for Future Hydrogen Technologies (MAT4HY.NRW)
  Hydrogen is a guarantee of success for the energy turnaround. Targeted material development taking into account the electrochemical properties up to the application (also above 100 bar) are necessary for the scaling of the technology. The MAT4HYP cooperation platform brings together relevant development partners along the knowledge and value chain and promotes intensive exchange on company-specific issues in order to achieve the common goal of the energy transition.

• Future network wasser^plus for transfer in the region (wasser^plus OWL)
  Climate change, demographic developments, land use changes, technological innovations and changing consumer behavior are bringing about comprehensive changes in water management that cannot be managed by industry-specific or local measures alone. The cooperation platform wasser^plus OWL promotes cooperation and exchange among local institutions and actors as well as cooperation on a regional level in order to identify inter- and transdisciplinary solution approaches for sustainable water management for these increasingly complex challenges.

• Solution-selling cooperation platform through integration of sales and service components (SolutiKo)
  Producing companies in NRW are often offered untapped new revenue opportunities through the integrated solution selling of physical products, industrial and digital services, so-called solution selling. The solution selling cooperation platform (Solutiko) starts here and wants to support companies in the development of new competencies at the interface between the units "Sales" and "Service" by giving manufacturing companies broad access to dialog and networking with top research as well as numerous external participants from manufacturing companies in NRW in solution selling.