Transformation

Transformation Hubs funding program

The Wire Harness transformation hub is a publicly funded project that was approved as part of the funding announcement "Establishment and implementation of transformation hubs to support transformation processes in value chains in the automotive industry" by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi now BMWK) on October 5, 2021.

To support the challenges in the transformation process, the German government decided in November 2020 to set up a "Future Fund for the Automotive Industry", which was endowed with one billion euros. This primarily addresses the medium and long-term challenges facing the automotive industry. A central component of the approved package of measures is the implementation of an overall concept for transfer, which in particular supports the necessary transformation in the regions in order to sustainably secure (regional) performance against the backdrop of fundamental technological change.

Funding objectives

The aim of the funding announcement is to support the relevant stakeholders in the regions affected by structural change in the automotive and supplier industry along the entire value chain of the automotive industry in the necessary transformation quickly and sustainably, in particular through knowledge transfer. Relevant stakeholders (target group) include companies, universities and research institutions.

To this end, thematically-oriented transformation hubs are to be designed, established and operated along relevant value chains in the automotive and supplier industry. Based on their respective knowledge of the thematic focus(es), they are to identify and bundle current economic and technological trends, R&D results and state-of-the-art digitalization technologies and applications in their thematic focus(es) and prepare them for transfer to the regions.

The transfer of knowledge and technology then takes place in particular in cooperation with the relevant players who, in their multiplier function, transfer the generated knowledge into broad application - this also includes the regional transformation networks currently being established.

Contribution of the transformation hubs to the funding policy objectives

The funded transformation hubs should thus make a clearly recognizable contribution to the following funding policy objectives of this funding announcement:

• Knowledge transfer on transformation-relevant topics including relevant research and development for the relevant players in the regions affected by structural change in the automotive and supplier industry along the entire automotive industry value chain
• Knowledge transfer on resource and energy efficiency, including relevant research and development for ecologically sustainable production in the value chains (including reduction of greenhouse gas
  emissions and sustainable use of raw materials/materials)
• Scaling R&D solutions across existing structures along the value chain as a contribution to transformation
• Networking of relevant stakeholders, including via the transformation networks, and initiation of implementation steps, e.g. through transformation projects

The thematically-oriented transformation hubs are intended to act as a hub between findings from research and development and the transformation potential of the target group.

The objectives are to be achieved by the transformation hubs performing the following transfer and transformation tasks, among others, through funding.

• Process, bundle and disseminate current technological and economic trends as well as results and solutions from R&D with high relevance for the value chain (broad transfer) through a set of interlocking target group-specific transfer instruments (provision of expertise, contact points, demonstrators, network partners, event formats, publications, etc.).
• Linking the potentials and needs of the key topics and value chains with the results and solutions from R&D ("matching"), as well as translating and contextualizing solutions for the value chain (assignment to needs)
• Establishing and maintaining user and user communities to disseminate the results and solutions from R&D projects in the context of the value chain