Expertise for the digital transformation

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things or of Everything: The digital transformation revolutionizes industry and will change both the nature of work and the nature of society. In order to prepare young scientists for these challenges, the University of Stuttgart will be participating in the innovative European training network “EINST4INE” (European Training Network for INduStry Digital Transformation across Innovation Ecosystems). The consortium includes academic institutions in six European countries, in Australia, and in the US as well as 15 industrial partners.

The aim of the doctoral degree program is to provide a first-class education in the overarching research area of digital transformation in industry and its innovation ecosystems, i.e. clusters, in which different actors are networked to drive innovation. The program is intended to lead to a new generation of highly productive early career researchers capable of meeting the fundamental challenges of future industrial systems. Their task will be to analyze and anticipate how digital transformation is going to change business models in various sectors and enable the emergence and further development of innovative ecosystems.

For this purpose, it is necessary to build a bridge between technology and management. The EINST4INE research program, therefore, comprises four interdisciplinary areas that complement each other: the human side of digital transformation, organizational approaches to coordination and decision-making, enabling technologies and new types of value creation logic, and new approaches to the organization and management of innovative ecosystems. These topics are taught using a hybrid approach that combines a broad range of multidisciplinary research activities and practical training with workshops, summer schools, and unique international research opportunities in Europe, the US, and Australia.

EINST4INE at the University of Stuttgart

At the University of Stuttgart, technological precursors to innovative ecosystems are being investigated within the framework of EINST4INE, in particular the question of how Industry 4.0 technologies enable the creation of ecosystems. In this process, researchers rely, among other things, on the method of network analysis and other quantitative research techniques as well as on the analysis of patent data. “We are very proud to be a part of this unique group of world-leading experts in the fields of Open Innovation, Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and innovative ecosystems,” says Prof. Alexander Brem, Holder of the Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship in Technology and Digitalization at the University of Stuttgart, Head of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovative Science as well as Research Director in Germany’s largest AI Cluster, Cyber Valley. The project includes an exceptional training program for doctoral students and offers unique interdisciplinary mobility opportunities to do research at one of the partner universities in Europe, the US, or Australia,” adds Dr. Petra Nylund, who is a postdoc at Professor Brem’s institute.

EINST4INE is one of 114 projects that were selected for funding in a highly competitive call by the European “Innovative Training Networks” (ITN). It is the only project from the economic and business sciences. The consortium is now expected to receive funding under the Marie Skłodowska Curie program of the ITN, totaling EUR four million. The expected share for the University of Stuttgart is about EUR 0.5 million. To kick-off the program, 15 doctoral researchers will be recruited in a worldwide campaign, and are expected to begin their work in mid-2021.

About the EINST4INE consortium

Besides the University of Stuttgart, the following universities are part of the EINST4INE consortium: RMIT Europe (Spain), the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (Finland), Aarhus University (Denmark), Cambridge University (UK), the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Italy), and the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy). 15 industrial organizations (among them Arena2036) and two academic partner organizations are also involved. RMIT University in Australia and the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley (USA), are a part of the EINST4INE consortium as well.