After a three-year run, the DIH-World project, which aimed to build a global network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) to promote innovation in digital technologies and strengthen the competitiveness of the participating regions, came to an end as planned. After the conclusion of the DIH World project, the network of DIHs will remain active and continue to exchange knowledge and resources.

As DHM, we were able to share much of our many years of experience as a Digital Innovation Hub in this project. The Digital Hub Logistics is one of the more advanced “Mature” Hubs here and shared the experiences from the last few years with the other 73 Hubs from a total of 26 countries during the DIH-World project period. The exchange was primarily on our cooperation in digitisation projects with small and medium-sized enterprises.

A cooperation with the Pismo Hub from Croatia has been established through the project. The hub is the first Croatian gaming hub and supports companies from the video game industry. A Slovakian company from the health sector was interested in this purpose with which we had already worked together. In this case, an important contact was established for the SME, which would not have occurred without the project. This also strengthened the regional innovation ecosystems.

Thorsten Hülsmann, CEO DHM, comments

Over the past ten years, we have observed that companies sometimes struggle to deal with the changes required for a more innovation culture. And this is exactly where we at Digital Hub Management can help.  We already work alongside 45 small and medium-sized businesses and over 90 start-ups. We have in our ecosystem: applied research organisations, methodologies and technology providers to bring different groups together and offer tailor-made support.’ 

Furthermore, the Digital Hub Logistics Dortmund has been awarded a European Digital Innovation Hub under the brand of EDIH-DO in 2022, enabling them to further intensify its support activities for SMEs and start-ups and leverage on an international network of EDIHs for sharing experiences and pursuing opportunities for collaboration to engage in the regional development of the innovation ecosystem. Also in this new context, we were able to share a lot of important information and experiences with other EDIHs from all over Europe through DIH-World.

The project demonstrated the importance of building a network of DIHs to promote the exchange of knowledge and resources. Networking enabled effective collaboration and accelerated the innovation process. The continuous exchange of knowledge between DIHs is of great importance. Regular meetings, workshops and conferences promote the flow of information and enable the DIHs to learn from each other and expand their knowledge.

It is hoped that the results achieved will serve as a basis for future projects and promote further innovation on a global scale.

Find out more at: https://dihworld.eu/