In cooperation with Austro Digital, BABEG is opening the Digital Innovation Hub South as part of the kick-off workshop at the Lakeside Science & Technology Park.
The aim of the initiative is to improve networking in the province of Carinthia on the subject of digitization and thus to establish Carinthia as a location for innovative ability and high technological competence.
Today’s kick-off event of the Digital Innovation Hub South (DIH Süd) is dedicated to sustainable digitisation for Carinthian companies. The DIH is founded by BABEG Kärntner Betriebsansiedlungs- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH and the association for the promotion of digitisation in Austria “Austro Digital”. “Together with Austro Digital, we are pleased to be the initiator of the Digital Innovation Hub South and to be active as a network node for impulse-giving projects in Carinthia. The aim is to promote knowledge and technology transfer for SMEs in the field of research and development and digitization in general,” emphasizes Markus Hornböck, Managing Director of BABEG.
Digital Innovation Hub – a networked competence center
A Digital Innovation Hub is a centre of excellence that brings together research and funding institutions, digital pioneers and companies under one roof. The DIH Süd is intended to provide a contact point so that companies can find their way through the increasingly dense “digital jungle”. Current topics of digitisation are prepared in a simple, clear and practical way for the benefit of SMEs. Such a comprehensive project can only be implemented through the cooperation of many. So far, numerous supporters have already been won for the project, including the University of Klagenfurt, the Carinthian Chamber of Labour, the Carinthian University of Applied Sciences, the association of Austrian Industry, the State of Carinthia and the Carinthian Chamber of Commerce. “Digitisation is a fundamental change in economy and society that affects us all. Due to the diversity and complexity of the topic, there is a need for a central contact point that coordinates the offers and brings users and providers together for cooperation”, explains Andreas Preiml of Austro Digital, this project of DIH Süd.
Making digitisation possible
Today’s kick-off event at the Lakeside Science & Technology Park is the beginning of a common path, which on the one hand focuses on the transparent processing of already existing digitisation offers (research institutions, developers & service providers) and on the other hand the companies themselves have their say. SMEs from various industries were invited to demonstrate digital challenges in practice. A frequently mentioned wish was, among other things, that a transparent organisation is needed to enable low-threshold digitisation in Carinthian companies in a sustainable way. “The ‘Digital Innovation Hub South’ gives small and medium-sized companies, digital pioneers as well as research and funding institutions the space for cooperation and coordination in Carinthia. With the establishment of the ‘Digital Innovation Hub South’, we ensure that the current topics of digitisation are taken up and simply processed”, Carinthia’s technology consultant LHStv.in Gaby Schaunig outlines the potential of the Digital Innovation Hub South.
Based on the results of the workshop and in combination with the analysis of already existing knowledge, the focal points of the Digital Innovation Hub South will be defined after the workshop.