A projectized path towards an effective industry-university-cluster: Ruhrvalley

摘要

The strength of the German economy is the backbone of the technology-driven small- and midsize enterprises (SMEs). SME focus on small but very advanced niches and can be world-market leaders in their domain. To provide solutions to customers, they form SME clusters. A very important driver for successful technology regions are industry-university-cooperations [1] with a focus on applied sciences [2]. Starting 2017, the German federal ministry of research and education funded 10 excellent clusters driven by universities of applied sciences in Germany. The cluster ruhrvalley [3] started operation with 7 research institutes, 40+ companies (including 15+ own technology spin offs) and a wide network of partners. The focus is on "mobility and energy for metropolitan change" including technologies like eMobility, renewable energies, Internet-of-things and IT security with the aim to develop system solutions on a metropolitan scale. The cluster is located in Germans largest metropolitan agglomeration - the Ruhr Valley. The cluster management is based on a fully projectized approach putting innovative researchers and companies into effective interaction by deploying a tailored portfolio of project types and cooperation formats. The orchestration of this project portfolio and the stimulation of innovations and new businesses form a kind of a "project circus" [4]. It is crucial to monitor the effectivity and efficiency of this approach constantly and to adapt the project types and format to the desired outcome. We will present the projectized innovation management and the controlling approach (based on a score card) with first results.