Good practice:

Innovation Campus Lemgo

At the Innovation Campus Lemgo, the complete innovation chain of the digital economy is concentrated in one place: from vocational orientation and training, further education and academic studies to research, development, handicrafts, entrepreneurship and company settlement. This will result in innovative solutions for current and future challenges in the fields of digitalisation and intelligent technical systems in the clusters of automation/production technology, food technology, energy systems, health, as well as for vocational and academic training and further education.
The overall project serves the future viability of the whole region – and the competitiveness of SMEs. In the triad of education - research - economy, the campus stakeholders are responding to the current and future challenges of demography, digitization and rural depopulation. Concerning digital innovation the ICL forms the ideal eco-system for SMEs and business starters to increase B2B e-commerce.
The Innovation Campus Lemgo association was founded to promote sustainable professionalisation in 2018. Stakeholders such as the Kreis Lippe (district of Lippe), the City of Lemgo, the TH OWL - University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, the Regional Craftsmen's Association, the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Industry and others engaged as founding members.

The office of the association ICL currently operates with three employees and is basically financed by the members of the association and by subsidies. The demand for the first three years is about one million Euro.

An excellent example of the open cooperation is the SmartFactoryOWL, a research and transfer platform for automation technology. As perfect counterpart for food technology the "Smart Food Factory" is being created. Today over 500 experts from various companies and disciplines are working on concrete applications and start-ups. They are profiting from the effective technology and know-how transfer based on short distances. Further inspiring science to business platforms are created.

It is a challenge to find a balance between the different interests (from businesses, researchers, administration and society etc.) that inevitably come together in such an eco-system, because only through community projects will be successful.

The development in Lemgo on the Innovation Campus is a success-story when it comes to innovation and digital transformation. Several success factors for this regional innovation ecosystem have emerged that can be transferred to other projects:
Innovation ecosystems need
- content-related objective that allows profiling of a region, e.g. Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) as technology region with focus on industry 4.0
- proven research expertise on site
- special infrastructures and transfer platforms on site
- local educational opportunities, especially for young people as the creative new generation
- local companies and founders who act in the immediate vicinity, start-ups and entrepreneurship must be promoted.
- acceptance and support from society, administration and politics by involving them personally
- people who meet in a creative environment and therefore places of encounter and exchange