Knowledge creates innovation

Hamburg’s academic landscape ranges from the University of Hamburg – with 90 study programmes the city’s largest institute of higher education – to "HafenCity University - University of the built environment". The University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) and the Technical University of Hamburg with its Northern Institute of Technology, and the Kühne Logistics University also enjoy a remarkable international reputation. The Bucerius Law School and the Leuphana University at Lüneburg in the Hamburg metro region also attract highly motivated students from home and abroad each year.

Also in research, Hamburg is an outstanding catalyst of innovation. Internationally renowned institutions of the Helmholtz Association like the German Electron Synchrotron DESY have been resident in Hamburg for a long time. DESY’s accelerator and detection instruments produce the strongest X-ray light of the world, pack particles with record energies, and open up a completely new window into the universe. Each year, more than 3,000 scientists from 60 nations come to DESY to study the structure and function of matter – from the interplay of smallest elementary particles to the behaviour of novel nanomaterials and vital biomolecules. In order to promote new technologies and innovation, DESY co-operates with industry and business, networks in national and international collaborations, and is key partner of the international scientific campus Hamburg-Bahrenfeld.

Unique in the world is the concept of the CHYN. In an interdisciplinary approach, scientists from physics, chemistry, biology and medicine are jointly pursuing research on nanostructures. This research provides an immense potential for applications in medicine and biology. For example, the smallest bioelectronic implants could in future replace destroyed sensory cells and help people to see, hear, or move arms or legs again.

Also at home on the banks of the Elbe river are institutes of the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz Association. Today, also the Fraunhofer Society is present with research institutions.

At Hamburg’s Laser Zentrum Nord (LZN), both the suspension of the crew rest and the luggage compartments of the Airbus A350 were designed as a bionic structure prior to entering series production – a milestone in the transfer of 3D printing to industrial production.

In the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, further research institutes are being located. Particularly well known is the CFK Valley Stade, where some 100 companies and research institutes work on new processes, methods and products in lightweight construction with carbon fibres and composites, mainly for the aerospace industry.

Think tank of the aviation industry is the ZAL TechCenter. An interface of science, business, and the City of Hamburg, its centrally bundles the city’s technological expertise in the ZAL TechCenter. The TechCenter promotes the industrialisation of new technologies in six areas of expertise, i.e. cabin concepts and technologies, ventilation and air conditioning systems as well as hull and systems integration.

Get inspired on the urban innovation platform of Hamburg and its Metropolitan Region: Future Hamburg